


Infrequent Affairs

by VictorianGold



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol, Alpha/Omega, Discrimination, Drama, Drug Use, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mental Health Issues, Omega Verse, Prostitution, Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2019-06-12 12:58:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 60
Words: 271,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictorianGold/pseuds/VictorianGold
Summary: Follow Sugawara and his Omega nest on a journey of self-discovery, heartbreak, and redemption, as they stumble through their University years in a somewhat sexist society. Sugawara has lost his home-- suddenly tossed into an Alpha world against his will. Luckily, Daichi is mild-mannered Alpha, sympathetic to the Omega cause. Is it possible for the two vastly different groups to co-exist, and maybe even find love?CHAPTER UPDATES: ON SUNDAY/MONDAY! Next update: Sunday, May 12!





	1. Collision

**Author's Note:**

> **Quick Authors Note**
> 
> 1) I am very new to the fanfiction community, so I am reaaaaally hoping that my story doesn't have too much overlap with other ones that are similar (I have read very few fanfiction works, so I really don't know what's out there, but I'm working on it!)
> 
> 2) This story contains dark themes, including non-consensual sex acts and drug use, so please, read at your own discretion. There may be portions of this story that could cause triggers.
> 
> 3) I have over 300K words already written for this work, so chapter updates with be somewhat frequent (depending on my work schedule) and the story will not suddenly be dropped- I promise that it will have a proper ending!
> 
> 4) At first, I tried to maintain the personalities of the characters, but somewhere along the line, a few of them slipped away from me. That being said, I did my best to sprinkle easter eggs here and there.
> 
> 5) If you notice any spelling errors, I'm sorry! I can only edit on my own so many times and I'm still learning how to properly format things :)
> 
> 6) I used both first and last names, depending on the characters. Basically, it was whichever of the two rolled off my typing fingers the best.
> 
> **Characters**
> 
> All characters have POVs at some point, but Asahi-Nishinoya ship lovers will not be given any smut, you have been warned :) (not sure if I can manage to do Tobio/Shoyo, either, but I'll try).
> 
> Story contains: Sugawara, Daichi, Oikawa, Hajime, Keiji, Bokuto, Yuji, Yachi, Shoyo, Tobio, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Ukai, Tanaka, Asahi, Nishinoya, and various made up characters.
> 
> **Tags (mature)**
> 
> Rape/non-con elements, drug use, alcohol use, graphic sexual intercourse (m/m, m/f), violence, blood/injuries.
> 
> If ya'll are deviants and are looking for more specific sex tags:
> 
> Anal sex, piercings, knotting, oral sex, rimming, blood play, spanking, slapping, d/s elements, light bondage. 
> 
> (There are a lot of heartwarming elements, too!)
> 
> **Disclaimer**
> 
> I do not own Haikyuu! Or the characters affiliated with the series and please do not repost this story elsewhere without my permission.
> 
> Thanks for reading, guys! Just seeing that it has views goes a long ways...otherwise the only reader would have been me, haha.
> 
> *****IMPORTANT MESSAGE PLEASE READ*****
> 
> The first twenty chapters (ish) suffer from tense and pronoun errors. I have actively worked to fix this in later chapters and will drop back in to edit the earlier ones when I have time.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part One: New Territory
> 
> Suga and his nest have unwittingly stumbled upon a new home, thanks to the chatty Omega, Shoyo. Tensions run high as Alphas and Omegas alike learn how to cohabitate under the same roof. A series of unfortunate events drag Daichi, Hajime, and Bokuto into a world that they never knew existed-- opening their eyes to the difficult lives of their Omega counterparts. Hidden feelings are discovered and emotions are tested as the new housemates walk hand-in-hand into new territory!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *****IMPORTANT MESSAGE PLEASE READ*****
> 
> The first twenty chapters (ish) suffer from tense and pronoun errors. I have actively worked to fix this in later chapters and will drop back in to edit the earlier ones when I have time.
> 
> If you notice something that you like/dislike about this work, feel free to leave a comment! 
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Part One: New Territory**

**Chapter One: Collision**

**Sugawara~**

Suga held his arms around Yachi's trembling shoulders. Both of them were seated on the curb of the grey pavement, their clothing riddled with soot. Shoyo and Yamaguchi were crouched down on Yachi's other side, their faces heavy with a mixture of upset and pure rage. Heat radiated out from the burning building before them-- colours of orange licking up at the night sky and  vividly lighting the normally dark street.

"I'll _kill_ them. I will hunt down every last one of those bastard Alphas and make them pay!" Suga heard Oikawa ferociously spit from his position, standing a few feet away on the sidewalk.

"I'll fucking help you," Nishinoya agreed, his small hands balled into tight fists at his sides as he watched the flames from across the road.

Suga let out a frustrated sigh when he heard Keiji muttered something along the lines of--  _great deal of help that would do, against Alphas._ He craned his stiff neck to monitor the three boys on his left, already aware that Keiji's unnecessary provocation was going to cause a scuffle.

Oikawa sharply turned to face Keiji and grabbed the boy's narrow shoulders in a frantic sort of desperation. "You are a fucking piece of shit for saying that!" He yelled, shaking his blue-eyed friend as if to physically rattle him back to his senses. "You think they can just get away with treating us like this? Burning down our house?! This was your home, too, you asshole! Be angry for once in your life!"

Suga flinched at Oikawa's honest statement and glanced back at the hot wreckage in front of him. The flames were no longer licking up into the stars. Finally, the fire fighters seemed to be in control of the messy blaze. A slight sob from Yachi alerted him that his scent was becoming distressed, and indeed, he was-- _the destructed lot across the road was their home_. It was  _his_  home, and it was so easily snatched away by the whim of an Alpha and his lapdog friends. Although his rage equaled Oikawa's, and he was as horrified as Yachi, he did his best to reign in his upset and project a calm fragrance. _It was not the time for them to be divided, especially now. They were homeless and had only the meager clothing on their backs._

He swung his silver head back to glance at the bickering flock and watched as Keiji gingerly brushed Oikawa's hands from his narrow shoulders. "You think everything can be solved with violence. You might as well be an Alpha yourself. What a dream come true that would be for you," he lazily droned to the taller boy through narrowed eyes.

Oikawa took a step back, obviously stunned by the personal stab, and Nishinoya quickly stepped between the two, directing himself to Keiji. "Our. Home. Was. Taken. From. Us. This has nothing to do with Oikawa's self-loathing. You of all people should know that."

As Nishinoya and the two larger boys continued to argue, Suga took a moment to himself, tuning out their angry words. He straightened his hunched shoulders and leaned in behind Yachi, lightly poking the ginger Omega on his tense back.

"Shoyo…"

The small boy snapped up and returned his gaze. His chocolate eyes were heavy with tears and Suga was, once again, forced to push down a pang of grief.

"I need you to take care of Yachi for a moment. Rub her back with small circles and try your best to project a calming scent okay?" Suga said softly and Shoyo nodded in understanding, replacing his hand as he slowly rose to his feet and walked over to the bickering Omegas.

"Just because something was taken through an act of violence does not excuse a violent act in return."

"What a shocking response! The most passive Omega of the year award goes to...Keji Akaashi!"

"It's not passivity, it's logic, Oikawa. Just because your parents insisted that you grow up taking self defense classes does not mean you can stand your own against a house of Alpha shitheads. Don't be stupid."

"He wouldn't be alone! I can pack a punch, you know. Those fuckers don't deserve the air they breath," Nishinoya asserted with a hard nod.

Suga paused and took a deep breath, scrunching his nose when a scent of frightened rage radiated out from the arguing boys, reaching his nostrils with a vengeance.He wanted to bash some faces in just as much as Nishinoya, but in his heart, he agreed with Keji. Taking a large step forward, he gently placed his hand on Oikawa's shoulder, stopping the boy mid-sentence.

"Oikawa, Nishinoya, violence would only incite more violence," he put forth, taking the time to make eye contact with each of them-- showing them that he would not put up with any more infighting. When Oikawa lowered his head to look down at his slippered feet in shame, he continued. "Once Professor Suzuki arrives, she will help us report this to the University Administration and a formal investigation with take place. We will have justice. I'm certain of it."

*******

One week after the house fire, the University's investigation had been completed. Unsurprisingly, the Alpha's were absolved of all fault-- the incident was excused as a simple electrical shortage. It was far from the truth, but Suga had known from the start that the investigation's sole aim would be to protect the University's _Alpha elite._ While he hoped that the world was slowly changing, he wasn't at all surprised by the outcome. Underhanded events like this happened all over Japan. Acts of violence against Omegas were regularly dismissed by the local police and the state government all too often, and in some cases, they were even condoned.

He let out a heavy exhale, attempting to release a bit of his pent up stress, and looked across the small, cafe table to his house adviser. Professor Miyo Suzuki, an Omega herself, had brought him the tragic news only minutes earlier and she was still shaking, unable to hide her displeasure with the outcome. He knew a lot of the woman's past and he understood, first hand, the hardships she had to endure in order to acquire such a respected profession.

Omegas generally maintained one of five fields-- homemaker, receptionist, nurse, legal prostitution, or, if they were lucky enough, they worked with one of the non-profit Omega aid organizations. A professor at a renowned Alpha University was definitely not on the regular list and Suga greatly admired Miyo's hardworking resolve all the more for it. She had also helped him to realize that he too, had the power to change things for Omegas, if he was willing to put in the effort.

"You know…" Miyo started, resting her quivering hands on the sides of her porcelain floral tea cup. "When the Department of Education granted Omegas access to Alpha Universities, I knew there would be some adjustments and hurdles...but that was _seventeen_ years ago. You would think that things would have changed by now. I guess I shouldn't act surprised."

Suga nodded in agreement and took a sip of his cappuccino, licking the frothy remnants of milk from his lips. His professor was correct. The merging of Alphas and Omegas in Universities had been a difficult affair. _..no...it still was._ Aside from family members, and those few Omegas lucky enough to make Alpha friends in their pre-pubescent childhood, the two groups had little to no contact until they were thrown, head first, into the adult world.

The moment a child's secondary gender produced, usually around the age of twelve, they were sent to their respective schools and saw very little of their counterparts. While Alphas were able to roam freely during their formative years, Omega movements were limited to school, home, and the busses that transported them in between.

Suga could understand the government's point of view-- young Omegas _were_ vulnerable to Alphas, especially in their youth, and their irregular heat cycles were both challenging and powerful. But the segregation was only furthering the divide between the two groups. While it might sacrifice the safety of a lot of young Omegas, Suga firmly believed that it would be better to grant them equal measures of freedom. He had come to the conclusion that it was the Alphas that needed to change, not the Omegas-- _but how could they when they were completely separated from their counterparts during their most influenceable years?_ Alphas _needed_ to learn self control at an early age, a notion which the current system made impossible. Instead, it taught young Omegas that they were overly vulnerable until they mated, and to Alphas, that they could do anything they wanted to their fragile equals.

Suga had known from a young age that he _did not_ want to have a mate. He had always rejected the idea. He didn't mind going against the grain, refusing to sell out to the _common_ narrative-- that only with an Alpha mate could an Omega feel fully protected. If he did sell out, then things would _never_ change. Omegas needed to step up, make their voices and ideas heard, or the system would remain the same forever.

He had daydreamed through his entire childhood, salivating over the knowledge and influence he could acquire if he attended a proper University--  _an Alpha one_. There were Omega Universities, but they were merely a state funded facade to give  _some_  measure of equality between the two classes. In reality, they were a weak form of reconciliation. There were only eleven Omega Universities compared to the hundreds of Alpha ones throughout Japan. To make matters worse, Omega Universities only offered shallow programs that were dedicated to funneling their students into the common Omega professions, aside from prostitution, of course. That was a very different, tragic story.

Suga remembered, clear as day, when the state had announced the  _Omega Inclusion Initiative_  in 2003, formally granting Omegas access to all Japanese Universities. It was the moment when he starting dreaming for something better, something more than pumping out children for an Alpha mate. He had been eating his morning snack, honey cheerios without milk, in his grandmother's yellow kitchen when an audible crash came from in the living room. He stood up and wobbled over his spilled cheerios on his six year old legs, making his way towards the noise. As he stood under curved archway between the two rooms, he found his grandmother standing in front of the television, holding her wrinkled hands to her mouth in shock. A vase of pink roses was smashed on the floor boards in front of her, slowly trickling water across the wood. He had been confused by the scent of the room-- fear, shock, and happiness were not fragrances he had ever smelled mixed together before that day. Then, his grandmother turned to him, briskly scooped him into her strong arms, and said, _Suga, my beautiful boy, change is upon us._

A harsh clang from Miyo, shakily placing her tea cup down on its plate, shook him from his pleasant internal reflection. The professor swept her long black hair behind her delicate shoulder and looked across at him, determination in her emerald coloured eyes. "I won't stop," she offered in a disciplined tone. "I _will_ find a way to get your home back. I promise."

Suga smiled at the resolute scent and grabbed the woman's slender hand, releasing his own calm, yet obstinate fragrance. "I won't stop trying either," he said softly and gave her hand a gentle squeeze of assurance.

_But first, he and his Omega flock needed to find a new place to call home._

**Shoyo~**

Shoyo scratched around the back of his neck to reach the scent suppressor patch that was pasted to his pale skin. It had been bothering him since leaving the shelter earlier that morning. It wasn't that he was unaccustomed to wearing them, his mother had laid one out each morning to protect him during his commute to primary school. It was what the patch stood that left him agitated-- a physical reminder of his feelings towards his status as an Omega, and the discrimination he faced because of it. His irritation wasn't helped by the terrible news Suga had relayed in their group chat, earlier that morning. When he read the outcome of the Disciplinary Committee, he had nearly thrown his phone at the wall in frustration, but instead, he forced himself to calm down. He slapped on his patch and hoisted his makeshift school bag over his shoulder, and huffed out his anger during his long walk to the University campus-- physical activity always seemed to help him handle his emotions.

"Shoyo," a timid, lazy voice called out from behind, prompting him to jump up in his hard seat.

He turned around, taking one last scratch at his patch, and looked at the hesitant figure of Kenma, a boy he had grown quite close to during the semester. They were in all the same classes and he liked that the cat-like Omega was extremely mellow with his fragrance. It helped to offset his own obnoxious ones.

"Your scent distracted me for the entire class," the cat Omega droned in his usual, quiet tone as he packed up his things, placing them in his red rucksack with absent minded care.

"I-" He began, only to be interrupted by his oblivious, or uncaring, Omega friend.

"Where have you been this past week? Have you been sick? You haven't answered any of my texts…"

His eyes widened in sudden understanding-- _the cat boy had been worried about him._

"Ah, I'm sorry Kenma! Let's go, I'll tell you everything on the way to the Cafeteria. Fries? I want fries," he said hastily, grabbing Kenma's slender hand to drag him down the long hall. "You remember the fire on the resident side of campus last week?" He asked between quick strides, not bothering to look back at the boy he was tugging along.

Kenma nodded in understanding, unhappy with the pace, but compliant.

"Well...that was my house."

"What?" Kenma whispered as he came to a sudden stop, pulling away his small hand.

"Yeah, it's a long story," Shoyo started, rubbing the back of his head in feigned casualty. "The University Administration said that it was nobody's fault, even though it was Yachi's bastard ex-boyfriend and his Alpha dogs who did it. We _saw_ them, but apparently,  _that_ doesn't matter. Seven witnesses, all Omegas so, I guess that means no witnesses," he finished, spitting out the last few sentences with such ferocity that the cat Omega flinched back slightly.

It took him a few moments of silence, but he soon realized that Kenma, now visibly upset, was seeping a vulnerable scent of fear and sadness. He did his best to counter it with his own calming one and searched his mind for some words of comfort.

"It's okay! What's done is done, Kenma, you know? Don't worry yourself with it!" He hurried to say, once again grabbing Kenma's hand in his own to walk forward.

He _did not_ want to stay in place for too long with the upset scent his friend was leaking-- lest any unwanted Alphas pick up on the vulnerable fragrance. Kenma may be mated, but he most certainly was not. He didn't have the extra protection that Kenma was afforded.

As the pair rounded the corner, he spotted the cafeteria and picked up the pace.

"We're living in a short term shelter right now," he called over his shoulder and a wide smile passed over his face at the thought of food. "I'm sure Suga and Oikawa will figure something out! Not to mention our amazing house adviser, Miyo!"

"How many…"

"How many what?"

"How many Omegas were in your nest?"

"Well, there's Oikawa, Suga, um, me, um, three, four," Shoyo replied, counting on his short fingers."Seven, there are seven of us!" He finished, flashing a proud smile at the thought of his flock-- _he loved each and every one of them. Even sassy Oikawa and snarky Keiji._

"Huh…" Kenma said softly, cogs turning under his dyed blonde hair, mulling over something important.

Shoyo sniffed the air, nearly drooling at the greasy smell of food. He wanted a burger, some fries, and to _not_ talk about this anymore. _It was too depressing._ Once again, he scratched the scent suppressor on his neck, careful to not peel off the edges, and changed the subject.

"Kenma! I smell french fries! Let's go get some!" He exclaimed and hauled the cat Omega behind him into the cafeteria, effectively ending the irritating conversation.

**Kenma~**

Kenma dragged his feet along the cracked sidewalk, looking down at the video game in his hands. For the first time in his life, he wasn't really focussing on playing, but on Shoyo. _His friend was homeless...his nest was homeless...they had no money, none of their possessions, school supplies or otherwise, and the fraudulent investigation left them with zero support from University funds._  He sighed, pocketed his console, and looked up at the houses lining one of the many streets of the University's residence district.  _Surely one of them was vacant?_

It was not long before he, lost in heavy contemplation, arrived at his own home-- a large, yellow building with an expansive front veranda, and a front yard that housed a hearty oak tree.

"I'm one of the lucky ones..." He said quietly under his breath as he sat down on the porch steps and shuffled the straps of his bag off his narrow shoulders. He could tell by smell that none of his housemates were home, including his mate.

_Lucky…_ he thought again, this time keeping the words to himself. He _was_ lucky to be mated with a dominant Alpha. _It kept the other...well...the lesser Alphas off his case._ He still wore his scent suppressor, just to be safe, but as soon as an Alpha smelled Kuroo on his skin, they generally backed off. It wasn't the only perk either, being mated allowed him to live in a University provided Alpha residence. 

He huffed out a small puff of air and lost himself to his thoughts once more.  _None of his Alpha housemates ever gave him any sort of trouble...no trouble at all...would they give...Shoyo trouble...was it because he was mated...or because his Alpha housemates were good guys…maybe..._

As his thoughts passed by in a flurry of questions, he sat in silence on the porch, softly tapping his foot as he formulated a plan.

**Kuroo~**

Kuroo walked alongside Daichi and Asahi, conversing about their volleyball practice, bursting into a full sprint as soon as he smelled his mate's distress.

"Hey-" He heard his teammates yell in question as they broke out in their own run behind him, sensing his panic.

His mind went to various dark places during his short run to the house, all of which halted the moment he saw Kenma, _safe_ , yet releasing an upset scent. Daichi and Asahi arrived shortly behind him, they had only followed him because of his Alpha scent of panic. They wouldn't have been able to smell his Omega's upset from the distance that he had-- mated partners were better able to smell each others emotions, regardless of a patch.

"Oh. Kuroo..." His mate said quietly, looking up at him with dazed, yellow eyes.

"What happened," he growled in command as he pulled the small boy into a tight embrace.

He rubbed Kenma's head against his neck, rescenting him, then began to look over his delicate body for any sign of injury. When he was satisfied that his mate was unharmed, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and adjusted the cat-like Omega in his large lap.

"There was literally no point in me responding to your question...you were going to check me over anyways..." Kenma drawled out and looked up at his rooster-haired lover, flashing a cocky smirk.

"Well, thank you very much for the stressful walk home Kuroo," Daichi droned sarcastically, slapping him on the back. "A nice sprint after the sprints at practice, wonderful."

He let out a low snarl in response-- his volleyball captain was too close to his mate for his liking. Ordinarily, he wouldn't care, but right now, he was on edge.

"Hey, relax, Kuroo. We'll go inside!" Asahi chimed in, his tone lighthearted, trying to ease the tense situation as he walked past the mated pair and into the yellow house-- careful not to get too close.

Daichi followed with a exasperated sigh and Kuroo soon forgot about his Alpha teammates, falling prey to Kenma's distressed scent-- _it made him want to beat someone's face in._

"You still smell upset. You're not injured so what fucking happened? Did someone give you a hard time?"

"Kuroo, relax," his mate groaned in irritation, adjusting his scent to force his mate to loosen up. "Seriously, I'm fine..."

Kuroo _loved_ the smell of his Omega. It was like a sharp eucalyptus-- _sharp like Kenma._ He inhaled the black roots of the cat boy's hair and briefly contemplated dragging him upstairs to pin against their bed.  _No, no,_  he thought hastily as he nuzzled into the familiar locks,  _that would have to wait. Kenma was still upset, even if his scent no longer showed it._

"Okay, so what happened?" He questioned again, slightly adjusting himself under Kenma's light weight. "What's got you so worked up?"

"Well...remember that fire a week ago? I think it was eleven streets down from us...in the Omega District..."

"Yeah, I saw the flames when I woke up for morning volleyball...why...?"

"My friend, Shoyo, he lived there...with his Omega nest. Alphas burned it down."

Kuroo sighed and looked up at the afternoon sky, shielding his eyes from the bright sun with a large hand. He was slightly irritated at the information his mate had divulged, but the discrimination of Omegas never really bothered him that much. However, this time Kenma was involved, albeit secondarily. _This Omega...Shoyo...he was dear enough to his mate to have caused such an upset reaction-- he didn't like it one bit._ He glanced down at the small boy, noticing the familiar, tense face, lost in a speedy train of thought.

"I can see your cogs turning, what are you thinking?"

"Well…" Kenma whispered, looking up at him with unblinking, yellow cat eyes. "Shoyo said there were seven of them..."

Kuroo groaned at the words and rolled his head back dramatically. _He knew where the conversation was going, and Kenma knew that he wouldn't be able to say no._

"We have enough room in our house…" His mate continued, sensing victory. "The fourth years graduated last month and no new Alphas were placed here..."

"Agh, why! KENMA! _Why_ do you do these things to me?!" Kuroo loudly complained as he fell back on wooden planks of the porch behind him in exasperation, leaving Kenma perched in his lap like a kitten. "You're taking advantage of my kindness!"

"It's true. We have the room," Kenma offered up, glancing at him over a petite shoulder. "It's only _logical_. They're homeless and the University covered everything up to protect some Alphas. We have room in our home. So, logica-"

"You think that throwing a bunch of _single_ Omegas in with a bunch of _single_ Alphas is the solution to this problem?" Kuroo interrupted with a halfhearted sigh, flicking Kenma on the back with his forefinger. "Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me."

"It's better for them than being homeless. Plus, the Alphas here already know what it's like to live with an Omega..." His mate said with a small yawn and flipped over to lay on top of him, licking and nipping at his open scent glands. 

He groaned at the playful touch and grinned, _the kid could play dirty._

"I'll talk to the guys, but no promises okay?" He submitted and felt Kenma smirk against his tanned neck in victory. "But, before that," he continued, scooping up his mate in his arms to stand up on front stairs. "I'm going to fuck my scent into you. I'm sick of you smelling like other people."

**Daichi~**

"This is such a bad idea," Asahi sighed, placing his forehead down on the oak table in front of him with a _thud_. "This is _such_ a bad idea..."

"I agree with Asahi, no good will come of this," Daichi affirmed, crossing his arms against his broad chest.

Or at least, he was _pretty_ sure it was a bad idea. Admittedly, he didn't have much experience living with Omegas. Both of his parents were Alphas, but they were always sympathetic to the marginalized condition of their counterparts-- donating funds to Omega non-profits and sponsoring a few families here and there. He glanced up from his position against the wall and raked his gaze over his housemates. _Was Asahi the only one with an Omega parent? No...Hajime had one, too-- but the situation was more complex with him._

"Yeah!" Tanaka exclaimed as he threw his arms dramatically over his bald head. "It's hard enough to control myself around the buggers walking around campus, let alone in my own house!"

"Okay, but hear me out-" Kuroo started, but was quickly interrupted by a sly chirp from Hajime, their snarkiest roommate.

"You're only doing this because your _cute,_ little mate has you wrapped around his finger," he droned out in a lazy tone, prompting a guttural growl of dissatisfaction from the rooster. 

Daichi was quick to step in between them, unwilling to let Hajime's quip distract the house from their serious conversation.

"Okay, boys, let's just calm down," he threatened, releasing his own dominant scent to show that he meant business.

_Shit,_ he mused as Hajime shrugged his shoulders in concession, _brawls would be even more common in their house if a bunch of Omegas were brought in._   _There was no way to come up with an arrangement that would work. However...if what Kenma said was true...what other options did the Omega nest have?_

"See, this is exactly my point!" Tanaka hotly remarked, jerking Daicui from his pondering. The bald Alpha pointed a forefinger at Kuroo's aggressive stance towards Hajime and growled low. "You see this shit? We can hardly manage _one_ Omega in this house! You want to add seven more?" 

"No, it's because Hajime is an incorrigible flirt. I'd be pissed off, too," Tsukishima drawled out from the couch, adjusting the frames of his glasses against his pale face.

"Incorrigible, (of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed," Daichi heard Tobio mutter quietly from his position on the stairs near the front entry.

"Alphas burnt down their home. It's the least we can do to make amends," Kuroo stated plainly and straightened his stance, forgetting his previous anger with Hajime. "They don't have any other options."

"Yeah, but  _we_  didn't burn down their house…" Asahi mumbled into the wood of the dining table and threw his arms forward, as if to physically illustrate his exasperation with the affair. "We didn't do it..."

"I think," Daichi started and the boys perked up-- even the troublesome Tsukishima was _somewhat_ listening from his position on the living room coach. He might not have the most dominant scent in the house, but he knew that he held the most respect. "I think that we should give it a shot. I think we can do this. We already live with one Omega, so are a few more really going to make a difference?"

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat," Tanaka whined loudly and threw his head back once again, this time banging it against the yellow wallpaper behind him. "Are you serious? Man, come on, captain. You're so soft..."

"Well, if Daichi is willing to give it a shot, I guess I'm on board," Asahi conceded as he rose from his seat and made his way into the kitchen, effectively ending his participation in the debate.

"You're so easily persuaded, Asahi!" Tanaka called out, following him, and Daichi suppressed a snicker when he heard a loud clap on what he could only imagine was Asahi's back, followed by a audible whine.

"Okay, so that's two, no three, with Kuroo in agreement," Daichi recounted as he ran a large hand through his brunette hair. "How about you, Hajime? What's your damage?"

The short haired Alpha rolled his eyes and released a heavy breath. "Well, as long as one of them is fuckable, I guess it's fine."

"You're so gross, Hajime! Who would want to sleep with someone as ugly as you?" Tanaka popped his head out of the kitchen to get one, final chirp at his grumpy roommate.

"Watch it, baldy."

Daichi rolled his eyes at the chirpy bald Alpha and posed the question to the remaining housemates. "Tobio? Tsukishima? What's the verdict guys?"

"I don't care. As long as the don't disturb my studies," Tsukishima lazily replied without breaking his intense gaze from the book in his lap.

"Yeah whatever," Tobio added nonchalantly and waved a hand at the captain as he walked up the stairs.

"Okay, well, that's everybody!" Daichi yelled, his hand next to his mouth so the entire house could hear the unanimous decision. "I guess you've got your answer, Kuroo," he continued, clapping the rooster boy on the back. "But, no way in _hell_ am I telling our house adviser. I'll leave that shit up to you."

When Kuroo's face contorted in disturbed stress from the revelation, he let out a hearty laugh and added, "I believe in you, and I'm pretty sure that Professor Ukai will agree to it, anyways."

The rooster shivered and gazed off into the distance. "Yeah...but...he's just so damn scary..."

**Ukai~**

Professor Ukai waltzed into the Residence Information building and slapped down a bundle of paperwork on the secretary's dark desk. The brunette woman took a moment to glance over the contents of the pages before glancing up at him with shocked, blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you would like me to do with this, professor..."

"Ukai."

"Professor Ukai."

"I want you to take these papers," he said, lacing his tone with drawled out irritation as he glanced down at the thick folder on the black desk. "And file them over there in that locker."

"But-"

"What is so hard to understand? This is all that your job entails."

He knew that he was going to face a bit of backlash from the University over the decision, but the merging of unmated Alphas and Omegas in the same house was by no means against policy. _Unheard of perhaps, but not illegal_. He just wanted the secretary to do her job so he could be done with the errand-- he was hungry and the entire ordeal was eating into his lunch hour. 

"Mr. Ukai, there are _no_ houses on campus that have formally merged unpaired Omegas and Alphas together…" The woman explained slowly, doing her best to keep her tone professional. "I don't think the committee would-"

"Well, the next time someone comes to you with this paperwork, they won't have to go through this annoying chit-chat," he interrupted with a bitter growl, eyeing the woman down with darkening eyes. 

"Sir…"

"Is it against University policy?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then I fail to see what the problem is."

"The _problem_ is, sir, that merging the of the two classes in one house, under these circumstances, could cause the Alphas to become distracted from their school work and club activities. I don't think that it would be wise to attempt such a thing."

Ukai forced down his growing irritation at her utter contempt for the homeless Omegas.  _Distract the Alphas...what about the safety of the Omegas? Surely, there would be some worry for them...merging with a bunch of unknown, unmated Alphas?_ He had been shocked by the allegations that Professor Miyo made against the University during her recount of her Omega nest's destroyed home-- they had met earlier to discuss, over tea, the implications of merging their student counterparts. Now, after hearing the appointed secretary speak in such a disingenuous manner, he began to believe the beautiful Omega's story. _Perhaps, the University was biased...he had never thought about it before..._

"I will be fully involved in their integration, which you would know if you had actually taken the time to read the paperwork instead of just complaining about its implications," Ukai snapped back at the surprised woman.

He could tell that he was beginning to leak a scent of irritation and dominance, but he didn't care to reign it in-- he _was_ agitated, _and the female Alpha before him deserved to know it._  

"I will file the documents, but I'm sure the University will respond with a formal check up on the house affairs after a few weeks," the secretary submitted, wincing back at the impatience in his scent. "I will inform you as to when it will take place, once I have made contact with them."

"Fine by me," Ukai growled before turning on his heels to exit the brick building-- not even bothering to grace the woman with a farewell. 

While he was confident that the Alphas under his supervision were all well-mannered, and exceptional at controlling their instincts, he was still worried about the merge. His grandfather, a prominent Omega activist, would be proud of the steps he was taking to shelter the marginalized flock, but it was the Alpha students who had made the final decision. He swore to himself that he would not allow their charity to be warped into another bullet for the University to use against the Omegas-- he would do his utmost to ensure that the transition was as easy and successful as humanly possible. 

**Sugawara~**

Suga had met with the professors earlier that morning, pleased to find the Alpha house adviser a reserved man with a good amount of control over his instincts. In fact, he seemed to maintain more discipline over his feral nature than any Alpha Suga had met-- _aside from his own grandmother, of course._  However, his worries were renewed when the two professors explained that they would be unable to partake in the first meeting between his nest and their new Alpha housemates. Their work lives were too busy, and there was no time for rescheduling-- the sooner the flock was out of the shelter, the better. The location gave them a long, unprotected commute to and from class and the world wasn't _exactly_ the most secure place for young, unmated Omegas to roam about in.

Professor Ukai had promised that his Alphas were clear on the implications of the situation and had mentioned that the unofficial leader of the house, a boy named _Daichi_ , was level headed and in control of his instincts. While the information made Suga feel a _little_ better, he kept his hopes low-- _in his experience, mild-mannered Alphas were few and far between._  He was accutely aware that the Alphas, Omegas, and their house advisers were entering unknown territory. Never before had unmated groups lived in such close proximity to each other, at least, not on a University campus. It was crucial that they not fail, lest they give the biased University more reason to marginalize Omegas. At that thought, he rolled his shoulders to release some pent up tension and clung to the faint hope that the Alpha,  _Daichi_ , would help make the introductions as smooth as possible in Ukai's absence. 

_******* _

"Okay, does everyone have their Alpha spray?" Suga lectured his flock, grazing his honey colored eyes over his Omegas in question.

"Yesssssssss."

"Patches on?"

"Yeeeeeees."

"Heat prevention injectors? Did anyone forget anything at the shelter?"

"Stop stalling, Sugar Momma!" Oikawa whined, slapping playfully at his hand. "You sound like an overprotective grandmother. At this rate, we'll be standing outside the house _all_ evening~~"

He knew that his chestnut friend was right, but he couldn't help himself from triple checking his flock. He was projecting a full-bodied scent of calm and he had instructed the Omegas to do the same. From what he could tell, they were pretty successful-- _aside from Yachi...the circumstances around her were...complicated._  However, he knew that the little female Omega could remain in their new room with her distressed scent, segregated and safe, but the remaining Omegas... _if they were to be around Alphas full time, they needed to start practicing better control over their emotional fragrances._

"Shoyo!" A small boy shouted, louder than he expected from such a drowsy looking person, from the porch of the overbearing yellow house. "Are you guys going to come in...or what…?"

"Alright, you guys stay out here on the lawn a moment. Oikawa and I will go in and assess the situation. Do _not_ leave the property," he lectured before starting towards the house, determination driving each step he took.

"You heard him baby birds, chill out and enjoy the evening sun a while~~" Oikawa shouted over his shoulder, following the silver haired leader into the unknown.


	2. About the Bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Trigger Warning***  
> (Edit #1 complete)  
> (Cleaned up "protect the pack" continuity errors)

**Chapter Two: About the Bond**

**Daichi~**

Daichi watched as two Omegas stepped into the oak entryway of his home. His dark eyes grazed over their figures as he tried to ascertain their emotions by taking in their postures. His first impression lingered in his mind for quite some time-- unused to being in such close proximity to Omegas.  _Well, aside from when he was fucking them, but his feral mind always took control of his concious thoughts by that point._

The two male Omegas before him were both slender and small, but not necessarily in height. The brown haired one stood taller than Daichi did, however, they were... _fragile looking_. After a few moments, he felt confident that the  _gorgeous_  silver haired one was the leader of the homeless flock or, at the very least, the caretaker. The tall, almost Alpha-like one, he quickly pegged as the second in command.

His attention flickered back away from his internal contemplation and back to the silent reality of the room. He hastily introduced himself and smiled to ease the tension.

"Hello!" The silver haired boy replied with his own grin before bowing low as a sign of respect. "We are  _so_ grateful, and honored, that you guys are doing this wonderful act of kindness."

His sweet voice nearly stopped Daichi's heart and the natural fragrance wafting from his lithe body smelled like freshly baked cookies-- _it smelled like home._  It took everything Daichi had to not reach out and touch the boy's silver hair.

"Uh, no-no problem," he finally managed to stutter out in reply, smiling sheepishly. "Really, it's the least we could do!" 

 _Come on man, pull it together,_ he chastised himself with a subtle eye roll, _it's just an Omega. You see them every day at school. Pull. It. Together._

Suga hummed under his breath and there was laughter in his warm eyes. "I thought it would be a good idea to sit down with your household to, well, sort a few things out before I bring in the rest of the nest."

 _What a smart and protective Omega,_ _putting himself in the line of fire before letting his baby birds enter._  Daichi found himself melting with admiration...and panicking. He sent out a silent prayer, to any god that had the time to listen, that the silver boy hadn't noticed his sudden attraction to his homey scent.

"If you would call your beefy boys down here, I would like to size them up~~" The brunette boy chirped with a cheeky grin, then stuck out a playful pink tongue. 

 _Oh boy,_ Daichi thought with a not-so-subtle chuckle,  _this one was going to be a handful._ "Oi! Meeting in the dining room. No exceptions!" He yelled into the air and one by one, the Alphas crowded into the open main floor of the house.

Some sat around the oak dining table while others leaned up against open wall space. All had eyes on the Omegas, like wolves ready to eat. _That's not going to happen on my watch,_  Daichi promised himself, glancing at the two Omegas out of the corner of his eye. Neither boy looked scared in the slightest and he found himself impressed with their resolve-- _they were practically in a lion's den, after all._

"Boys, this is...I'm sorry I didn't get your names," he faltered apologetically, rubbing the back of his head with a large hand. 

"I'm Oikawa and this beauty is Suga," the chestnut haired Omega sang out and Suga to tsked loudly at his side.

The smell of the ocean and clean laundry rolled off the taller boy in droves of fresh intensity, subtly coating the inside of Daichi's nostrils with its freshness. While he found the scent rather pleasant, he much preferred Suga's sweet fragrance. At that thought, he absentmindedly shifted closer to the silver haired boy and inhaled slightly, against his better judgement.

Suga bowed again, this time to all of the Alpha house members. "It's an honor to meet you!"

The Omega's honest tone, his respectful action, or perhaps, his overwhelming scent, caught the other Alphas off guard-- a few of them flushed red while others shifted in their seats and averted their gaze.

Suga rose back to full height and cocked his head to the side. "Um, have any of you lived with Omegas before?"

The Alphas glanced at each other before Asahi chimed in softly. "My mom's an Omega."

"Don't hurt yourself big boy~~" Oikawa quipped back with a hearty laugh and Suga cast him another scornful look-- an interaction that Daichi was quickly finding to be a frequent occurrence between the two Omegas. 

"Okay. Well...maybe there are some things I should cover?" The silver boy asked gently when the other Alphas remained silent. He raised a brow, but his question was more of a statement. 

"That's a good idea, Suga. And We'll _all_ listen carefully, right Tanaka? RIGHT, Hajime?" Daichi growled to the most problematic of his boys, feeling the need to provide the lead Omega some back up. 

"Yeeeeeeeeesss," the two drawled out, rolling their eyes in unison.

Suga smiled, soft and sweet. "Great!" He took a small step forward and began to rattle off an explanation that was closer to a lecture. "Well, first off, it's rude to smell an Omega without their consent. It's okay to smell from a far, I understand that our scents can be quite powerful, but don't get too close or you'll frighten them."

Daichi stiffened. _He had broken that rule already._

"Second, and it should go without saying, but don't touch them without their expressive consent. When an Omega is scared, they release a smell that sours the air. I'm sure some of you are familiar with it. Sometimes it makes you guys really sick, sometimes it just riles up your angry instincts, so it's problematic either way." As the Omega continued, an image of the silver boy teaching bundles of students flickered across Daichi's mind-- _he would make an excellent professor._

"I _think_ , as long as everyone is wary of their scents and keeps a good leash of them, us in particular, then we shouldn't have any problems," Suga finished with an almost overzealous smile, at long last relinquishing a hint of nervousness with the situation.

Daichi was familiar with the scent of Omega fear. It was an appalling fragrance-- offensive, sour, and bitter to the senses. On the few occasions he had joined his volleyball team on a night out drinking, the air always reeked from the drugged up Omegas around them at the club. He felt a sharp pang of guilt for partaking in such a cruel pastime, especially now that he had conversed, _sober_ , with actual Omegas. 

Suga's pink mouth set in a hard line and his brows furrowed. "Now, the other Omegas in our flock are a bit more timid--"

"Except Nishinoya," Oikawa pointed out with a sly nod. "Oh, and Keji."

"Right," Suga nodded in agreement before continuing. " _Most_ of the others are really timid, but they're quick to warm up. I promise. I'm certain that if things go well, it probably won't take more than a few weeks for them to become their usual, happy selves!"

Daichi smiled at the motherly statement and his heart swelled again, thinking about Suga's natural protectiveness over the flock. _It was admirable, very much so._ He paused his skittering thoughts, glanced over the other Alphas, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they all were giving the silver boy their full attention. Even the normally tuned out Tobio and Tsukishima seemed alert and interested in what the Omega had to say. Perhaps, it was because Alphas, himself included, were never really taught much about Omegas to begin with. His assumption was confirmed when he saw Asahi nodding matter-of-factly to the things that were being explained. For the first time in his life, Daichi found himself wishing that he had an Omega family member that could have explained all of this before now. 

"As far as reigning in our scents, so we don't cause too much of a distraction, we will wear scent suppressor patches at all times," Oikawa's sing song voice chimed in to fill the momentary silence. "We also have heat injectors and I promise that we will be extremely proactive in regulating our cycles."

Daichi contemplated the implications of the scent suppressors. Even _he_ understood that the patches greatly increased an Omega's ability to walk around on campus, and society in general, without being cornered by over-aggressive.. _no...over-eager_ Alphas. He was also fairly certain that Kenma wore one at all times, but he didn't really mind the Omega's eucalyptus scent, nor was he overly attracted to it. _Not like the silver boy's fragrance._ When the thought snaked into his waiting mind, he flushed slightly in embarrassment-- keenly aware of his sudden desire to inhale as much of the sweet fragrance as he could. He didn't want Suga's scent to diminish, even a little. He would rather bathe in it and get his fill.

"Is that all?" Tanaka asked, once again pulling Daichi from his increasingly panicked thoughts, and Suga nodded, flashing a nervous smile. "Well bring 'em in man!"

After a few minutes, the remaining Omegas poured into the house and crowded around Oikawa and Suga. A tall freckled boy and a small blond girl stood behind the silver Omega, grasping onto his blue shirt with white knuckles. The small girl was shaking profusely and, unlike the others, Daichi could smell a sickly scent of terror radiating off of her pale skin. He felt nothing but remorse at her frightful state, and he did absolute his best to not imagine the hardships that she, and probably all of them, had been through. When he briefly caught Asahi's gaze, he knew the bunned Alpha was thinking the exact same thing. _Were things really this bad for Omegas?_

His eyes flickered over to Kenma. The cat-like Omega had joined his mate near the stairs and was subtly rubbing against the rooster's body, purring in contentment.  _Purring_ …Daichi wondered what that felt like... _how it would feel to have Suga do that against him._  After a few moments, he physically shook his head and pushed the idea away in frustration.  _What the fuck was happening?_ He steadied himself against the yellow wall behind him and shrugged it off. It _had_ to be side effect of his close proximity to so many unmated Omegas...

_Yes, that was definitely it._

Suga introduced the Omegas and Daichi introduced the Alphas. While the atmosphere remained tense at first, especially from Yachi's anxious scent, it soon shifted to comfortable curiosity once Suga had settled the small girl into their new room. Daichi knew that the atmosphere had remained relax because of Suga and Oikawa-- they had done their best to project a tranquil scent throughout the house, and it was working well. Daichi had seen Kenma utilize his scent to relax Kuroo in the past, but he had never been around an entire flock of Omegas before. For the first time in his life, he witnessed the sheer extent of influence that Omega fragrances had. Every single Alpha member in his pack was calm-- their feral nature full sated, even around unmated Omegas.

_What a relief._

When he first showed the Omegas to their quarters after their tense introduction, he was initially apologetic to Suga that he couldn't provide each of the the seven Omegas with their own private room. The silver boy had laughed, shushing him with a wave of the hand, and explained that flocks preferred to nest together in one location.

He poked his head inside the largest of the three open rooms and smiled a sweet smile that melted Daichi's insides all over again. "This one will be perfect. Lots of light, padded floor. It's perfect!"

Daichi cocked his head and smiled in turn. "Well, it's your space now. Do whatever you want with it!"

He watched the boy carefully shuffle Yachi inside through the door, then turned on his heels to hike back down to the main floor. _There was no way Alphas would be able to share a fucking room,_  he chuckled to himself,  _even sharing one house had its problems._  Weekly, sometimes daily, brawls were pretty common among Alphas, _even friendly ones._

_Now that the Omegas were officially living with them, was the infighting going to get worse?_

**Sugawara~**

One week had passed since Suga and his nest had moved into the Alpha's yellow house and he was thrilled that nothing _too_ problematic had occurred. Ukai and Miyo had dropped in on the second day, and he was overwhelmed with gratitude when the two professors lugged in bag after bag of newly bought clothing, school supplies, and toiletries for his Omegas. He briefly wondered if Ukai had helped Miyo in securing the funds to buy such an enormous haul of goods-- if he had, then he was an admirable man. Suga was also quick to note that Ukai's scent held a small, and growing, attraction to the beautiful, black haired professor. While he was very wary of the subtle fragrance, he sent out a silent prayer that the Alpha would not act on his instincts without Miyo's consent, but in his heart, he knew that Ukai would never dare do anything like that-- especially after showing such kindness to his flock in allowing them to live in his team's residence.

As Suga sat on the front stairs of the porch, he quickly brushed over the current state of each Omega in his flock. He knew that he didn't need to worry about Oikawa, the tall and beautiful boy poked at the Alphas every chance he got. In fact, a stern, short haired Alpha named Hajime had even started calling him Shittykawa-- the perfect nickname for the over-confident nestmate. 

Shoyo had only taken a few days to become comfortable with his new accommodations, but the ginger had never had any problems making friends. The Alphas seemed to be quite overwhelmed by the his distinct, energizing fragrance. His was, out of every Omega in the flock, the most prominent and, much to Suga's dismay, suppressor patches did very little to qualm it. While Suga had initially feared that Shoyo's smell would irritate the household Alphas, he was relieved when Daichi, the ever perceptible and good-hearted, had mentioned that his Alphas were becoming more alert than usual during their volleyball practices-- an awareness that the captain linked to their continued access to Shoyo's invigorating scent.

Nishinoya, the only other Omega that Suga considered to be as mouthy as Oikawa, had made fast friends with the gentle giant Alpha named Asahi. The two had begun taking morning jogs together and, by the fourth day he could tell that Asahi was dying to scent the small spitfire Omega. While he was nervous of the Alpha's motivations, he did his best to give Asahi the benefit of the doubt. The giant man was the only Alpha in the house with an Omega family member. Perhaps, he would be more sympathetic to their condition...but regardless, Suga was going to keep a watchful eye on him.

The quiet and composed Keiji did well to ignore their new housemates which was completely unsurprising to Suga. Whenever they walked around the campus together, Keiji had always been able to blatantly ignore the Alphas around them-- as if he didn't even register their presence at all. Although Keiji's blasè attitude had terrified him at first, his own personal mantra being that Omegas should _always_ on guard around Alphas, he soon realized that the snarky boy was exceptional at suppressing his scent. Oftentimes, Suga couldn't smell any Omega on him at all, which meant that Alphas were unable to as well.

Much like Keiji, Yamaguchi had remained reserved-- but he was much more terrified of the Alphas than his Omega nestmate. Suga couldn't blame him, given his difficult past.  Normally, an Omega that was as timid as the Yamaguchi was the perfect target to take advantage of, so Suga was pleasantly shocked at how much they had lucked out with the yellow house pack. Not a single one made a pass at the freckled boy... _thus far._ There was no shortage of Alpha knotheads in the world, so to land themselves a house of well-mannered ones was nothing short of a miracle.

The main thorn in Suga's side was his baby Yachi. She was still too traumatized by recent events to even leave their new nesting room. His heart broke for her each time she snaked her way into his thoughts. All of the Omegas in his flock, indeed all Omegas in general, had terrible past experiences, but Yachi's was... _recent._

Suga mulled over a few more things before shrugging off his long train of thought. He stood up from the front porch steps and hummed under his breath. After thinking about Yachi for such a significant amount of time, he decided to go upstairs and check on his timid baby bird.

As he rounded the stairs to the third floor he reigned in his scent, opting for a mild and measured fragrance that wouldn't frighten her. "Yachi?" He questioned softly as he entered the room, gently closing the oak door behind him. His eyes searched the sunny, tea green room until a blonde head poked out from a mess of pink blankets near the bay windows of the far wall.

"Hi, Suga," the tiny girl yawned to him, blinking sleep from her honey coloured eyes. 

 _At least she felt comfortable enough to sleep here,_ he thought to himself,  _even if she still woke up from nightmares._

"How are you doing? Can I get you anything?" He asked in a motherly tone as he pulled the small Omega into a messy, blanket filled embrace on the padded floor.

"No. Shoyo brought some soup and milk up earlier."

"You know Yachi..." Suga started, rubbing Yachi's back in small circles with a slender hand. _Her scent was still off...still scared...it had been for a long time now._ "Why don't you come outside on the porch with me? Fresh air and sunlight would do you good!"

"Eep!" Yachi squeaked, cowering into ample bedding once more. "What if-there are dangerous things-someone might have a gun-or-or an Alpha might jump us!" She exclaimed, her voice somewhat muffled by the mass of sheets.

Suga chuckled at her response, he couldn't help it. Her fear was genuine, but oftentimes, her translation of it came across as almost comedic. "Okay, well, I won't stop trying!" He replied in a gentle, yet resolute tone. "And you know that we Omegas are all here. Even if its an Alpha house, we are all still here. All of us are a family and we will never abandon you. We will never stop fighting for a safe and peaceful place for us to call home."

"Thanks, Suga," the small Omega mumbled as she nested back into the covers. "I know you won't..."

"Okay...good. Do you have your phone hidden somewhere in this mess? You'll call me if you need anything? Anything at all..."

"I will…I promise."

With that acknowledgement, Suga rose to his feet and stretched up his arms to reset his muscles, then exited the nesting room. There was nothing more he could do today to change Yachi's mind, he knew that he had to allow her to move at her own pace. He could only provide a safe place for her to heal, the rest was up to her.

**Daichi~**

Daichi walked up the stairs, smelling Suga's delicious scent and happily following it. The first few days he had done it absentmindedly, but now _...not so much_. He couldn't help himself... _and he had tried. Really, really tried._ Now, it was abundantly clear that his infatuation with the intoxicating fragrance wasn't from his close proximity to so many Omegas. It was with Suga.

_He was infatuated with Suga._

He froze in his tracks when he saw the silver haired boy gracefully exit the Omega's nest, a few feet ahead of him in the narrow hallway. Suga grinned when he noticed him, and his sweet scent became so overwhelming that Daichi nearly tumbled down the stairs behind him. He found it immensely frustrating that the other Omegas on campus, or even in the other ones in house, didn't make him feel so dizzy and... _primal_. He hated not being in control of his instincts and Suga's scent had them in a constant state of happy eagerness. It was new territory for him.

"Hey, Daichi. How was class?" The Omega boy asked sweetly and took a few light steps forward, maintaining a delicate sort of poise as he did so.

"Uh, it was good. Boring, but good."

He didn't want say that he had beat down a few Alphas who had cornered an Omega behind the Arts Building. It would just upset the silver boy. In fact, it would probably prompt the momma bird to run wildly out into the streets to find the Omega that had been hurt. Thinking about Suga being cornered by hostile Alphas stimulated his scent to flush with a red anger, and he clenched his fists at his sides to mitigate the unwanted pressure it was causing in his chest.

"What's wrong?" Suga questioned, his voice holding a note of hesitation-- unsure as to why he was releasing such an engaged fragrance so abruptly.

By the time Daichi had wrestled back control of his instincts, the silver boy was now much, much closer-- he hadn't even noticed the move. Slowly, Suga's calming fragrance wafted over him like a dark, liquid honey, melting him with its thick tranquility and he quickly forgot his previous hostility.

"Sorry, it's nothing...just school stuff," he finally replied after clearing his throat in embarrassment. "How is Yachi doing?"

"She's... still having trouble. But time heals all wounds!"

Daichi's mouth set in a hard line. "I'm sorry. if anyone's giving her a hard time around here-"

"No no!" Suga smiled and shook his hands out in front of him. "It's nothing to do with that. It's just...well...most Omegas have a shitty backstory. It's nothing new, really."

Suga's smile faded with the remark and his comforting scent quickly dissipated with it, curling into the clean air to disappear completely. Daichi felt a mournful pang radiate out from deep within his chest and a moment later, he was flooded by new Alpha instincts-- overwhelmed with the desire to feel the Omega's delicate frame against his own muscled figure. He wanted to reach out and pull Suga into his arms, gently kiss his pink lips, caress across the mole under the his eye, and trail a nose up the skin of the his delicate, pale neck. Daichi wanted nothing more than to wrap the boy in his own dominant scent to keep him safe. He didn't even know what exactly he wanted to keep Suga safe _from..._ he just wanted to.. _.protect him._

"You wanna go for a walk?" Suga offered up after a few moments and he was relieved to be pulled out of his pleasant, yet irritating thoughts.

"Yeah for sure," he replied, coughing slightly to clear his throat once more. "It's a nice evening."

**Daichi~**

Daichi and Suga walked side by side down the grey sidewalk of the residence district without touching, much to Daichi's instinctual irritation. The neighborhood was caked in a golden hue from the setting sun, and the colorful houses and expansive parks were overshadowed by large cherry blossom trees, swaying from the warm, evening breeze. He snuck looks at Suga every chance he got. He wanted to know more about the wise, silver boy...and to kill every person who had ever hurt him. Daichi knew that it was an Alpha driven thought, but he was slowly making peace with it-- he was keenly aware that it wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

There were very few people outside, most had made the walk back from campus hours ago. To that, he gave a silent _thank you_ to the universe. If Alphas were walking about, he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep himself from growling at them-- from asserting his dominance over the small, silver Omega at his side.

"Can I ask you something?" He questioned, finally breaking the pleasant silence.

"Sure, shoot," Suga replied quietly, pulling his attention back from the floating pink blossoms wafting down in the breezy summer air.

"Well...what exactly happened with Yachi? And with your old residence? Kuroo said that some Alphas burned it down..."

"Ah," Suga murmured, nodding in understanding before stopping to look up at the crisp, cloudless sky.

Daichi admired the way the fragile boy looked when he was lost in thought, so much so that he didn't notice that the two of them had arrived at the waterfront park at the edge of the residence district.

**Suga~**

"Well...what exactly happened with Yachi? And with the house? Kuroo said that some Alphas burned it down..."

Suga stopped to ponder the question for a moment. It had been a week since they had moved into the yellow house and he had found himself _almost_  trusting Daichi-- _an Alpha._ He had not completely trusted an Alpha since... _well...it was unwise to trust them unless they were family...and even then..._

But when it came to the dark haired captain, he couldn't seem to help himself. There was something about the man, perhaps his level head and mild sensibilities, that made Suga  _want_  to be scented by him-- a feeling which he was very, very wary of.

He felt Daichi's prying eyes and smelled the apprehension in the air. He knew that he had to give the captain some sort of explanation. He owed the patient man that much, at the very least.

"If I tell you, you have to keep it in confidence," he finally replied, glancing over to meet the captain's gaze without moving his head from its position, craned up at the sky.

"Of course."

"I'm not telling you the details either. It's Yachi's pain, not mine. I have my own demons to content with."

When Daichi tensed up at his statement, he furrowed his brows in confusion.  _Why?_  He thought to himself in question and licked his dry lips,  _was he angry that he didn't fully trust him?_

"I understand," the brunette man asserted, nodding in understanding without breaking their eye contact.

The statement contained a small growl, rumbling around inside his throat with hot instinct. Suga could tell that the noise wasn't aggressive in nature, it was protective. He almost wished it that it was the former-- it would be easier for him to cope with. Aggression was easy...protection was complicated.

He ran a dainty hand through his silver locks and sighed. "I think you have a right to know because it could prove to be a ticking time bomb. Plus, you and I seem to be the, um, the leaders around here, so I think we should keep an eye on it."

"Okay, I'll keep in in confidence, I promise."

They sat down on a bench facing the calm ocean and Suga listened intently to the cackles of a pack of seagulls, playing in the sluggish waves on the sand. He did his best to project a tranquil scent, but it was difficult for him to do so whenever he vocalized such terrible Omega experiences.

"Yachi was dating an Alpha, a shit one named Chaki," he started, already aware that his scent was becoming strained from the recollection, but he pushed forward his explanation. "No one in our nest liked him. He was domineering...controlling...and Yachi frightens easily. He took advantage of her gentle nature. A lot of Alphas like to think we are docile, that we belong on our knees and only exist for sexual service, but they forget that we are people, too! Living, breathing, people!"

"I don't think like that."

Suga's breath caught in his throat and he snapped his gaze to the Alpha at his side. "W-what?"

"I don't think Omegas are meant to be docile. That's ridiculous...and outdated."

The abrupt and honest testimony from the captain caught Suga off guard. It wasn't that he had thought Daichi as unsympathetic to the Omega condition...just ignorant to it.  _It was just...he didn't expect the captain to vocalize his forward thinking thoughts so readily._  A warm bubble of happiness pushed out from Suga's stomach and climbed up to his chest, enclosing itself around his beating heart. He couldn't stop himself from enjoying it, so he did. Flashing a sweet smile at the Alpha, he continued his story--this time, feeling more at ease to share the events.

"Anyways, Yachi started to come home with these bruises. I guess isn't unusual, it sort of comes with being an Omega, but Oikawa saw that they were deeper than one would expect from _normal_ sexual relations. He didn't like it and he started telling her that she needed to stop seeing the asshole. He even said that he would kick Chaki's ass if he ever came by the house," he explained, finishing with a loud and genuine giggle.

 _Oikawa was a pain in the ass sometimes, but the snarky boy was an invaluable friend._  He respected the chestnut Omega more than anyone else-- trusted him with his life, even. Plus, despite his stunning looks, Oikawa could kick some Alpha ass when the occasion called for it. Suga squashed his laughter, then shook his head and continued his unhappy recollection.

"Yachi didn't stop seeing Chaki, though. We all knew she wanted to leave him, but she was too frightened of what he would do," he trailed off with a deep, sad sigh. He inhaled resh air and Daichi's tense and angry scent sucked in with it. "We found out later that Chaki had threatened to kill us, the _only_ family she really has left. She tried to pull away from him, but the more she tried, the more he hurt her….and threatened to hurt us, too. She started coming home with more than bruises. A broken arm...a few days later it was some broken ribs. Each time, the bites and scratch marks got deeper and deeper. The worse his abuses got, the more she retreated inside her own mind. It got so bad that she had to switch to online schooling. She was too fucking scared to even leave our house. We lost our little sunshine baby...and Oikawa was _furious_. I mean, I was furious, but he was worse. He's sort of, the Alpha of our group," he smiled at the thought and giggled again, this time covering his mouth with his slender hands. He shook his head in what could only be described as appreciation, once again finding himself overly grateful for the Oikawa's unwitting companionship.

"Sounds like Oikawa is a pretty good guy, eh?" Daichi interjected between Suga's chuckles, but the undertone of agitation remained present in his voice.

"Mmm, he is... _invaluable_. I mean, they all are," Suga replied, adjusting slightly on the hard bench. "So, one night, the night before the fire, Oikawa followed Chaki home from class. He kicked the shit out of the asshole...told him to stay away from Yachi and our nest. He even threatened to report him to the University, not like that would do anything, but still. None of it mattered, of course. The next night we woke up with our house burning, and Chaki and his Alpha dogs were on our front lawn hollering and screeching in...some sick sort of triumph..."

He took a moment to compose himself, grateful that Daichi didn't try to fill the silence with empty words. "I think Oikawa blames himself, for what happened," he whispered, looking down at his folded hands in his lap. "And I know for a _fact_ that Yachi blames herself. The whole thing is a mess, really." He rolled his neck and looked out at the expansive ocean, he wanted the story to have a happy ending. "And now we're here with you guys," he finished, as cheerfully as he could manage in his current state of upset.

Daichi remained pensive, sitting next to him in a sort of stunned silence-- contemplating everything that was said. 

"You'd better not have fallen asleep during my story, Daichi," Suga chirped after a few minutes, attempting to lighten the Alpha's tense scent.

"I didn't, I would never," came a deep, growling response that was deadly serious. " _Never_..."

"Good," Suga nodded with closed eyes and rose up from the bench.

He took a few steps forward and leaned forward on the cobblestone barrier separating the pathway from the beach below. Daichi remained seated, but he could feel the Alpha's chocolate eyes boring into his slender back from behind.

"Is that, common?" The captain finally asked with a slight tone of hesitation. "Shit like this? How often does it happen."

"Unfortunately, yes. Happens pretty often."

"Has it...happened to you?" Daichi pushed, voice suddenly laced with a dark, dangerous rumble from his throat.

It was the same tone that Suga had struggled with earlier--  _protection._  He turned around to face the captain and the look on the man's tanned face had his heart skipping beats. It was overly sympathetic and very, very angry. "The past is the past," he said quickly with a shrug, attempting to dissipate the wired situation. "No need to burden ourselves with it now."

He didn't want to think about the past any longer, it upset him, and for some strange reason, he didn't want Daichi to hear about it either. After mulling over the strange idea for a few moments, he settled on the notion that he didn't want to give the Alpha another reason to feel sympathy for him-- he could take care of himself just fine, he always had. 

**Daichi~**

As the pair walked home, Daichi did his best to suppress his inner rage, but it was a white hot poker burning into the back of his neck, blurring his vision with crimson heat. He didn't know Yachi personally, she barely left the Omega's room at all, but she was so small and fragile. He hated the idea of anyone touching her against he will... _anyone...like Chaki._  But the thing that threatened to blind him with an onset of feral madness was his sudden realization that Suga had gone through the same, terrible things. The same vicious trials. The same violence.  _His_  beautiful and caring Suga.  _His._  The word radiated out from his thoughts, pooling somewhere deep within his chest and he didn't have the heart to try and stop it. He _wanted_  to protect this silver haired boy and ensure that no one would ever touch him.  _No one, but him._

"Why didn't you report that fucker to the University or the police?" He finally managed to ask after they had walked nearly the entire way back in a sort of bittersweet silence. "They should be in jail."

Suga laughed at his question, but it was nothing more than an attempt to hide his upset feelings. "Maybe you don't know, I mean, how could you? You are an  _Alpha,_ after all."

Daichi visibly shrunk away from the snickering tone of the word, _Alpha_. It was a nasty dagger to his heart.

"I'm sorry...that was rude of me," Suga corrected, looking over at him with an apologetic smile. "The justice system...isn't exactly on our side, that's all."

Daichi took some time to contemplate Japan's legal system. Brawling was so common that the government did very little to police Alpha-on-Alpha violence. Only when murder was involved were the police brought in, and even then, there were so many mitigating circumstances. If an Alpha killed another over the possession of an Omega, they were only arrested if a mated pair was involved in the conflict-- or if the Omega was under the age of eighteen. He even had a few friends from high school who were killed in a squabble over a neighborhood Omega that had gone into a premature heat. The police had ruled it as a legal incident, since no formal mating was involved nor the Omega's parental guardians.

In those few moments of silent reflection, he realized that, with all his knowledge on Alpha law, he knew almost _nothing_ about the ones regarding Omegas. He glanced over at Suga and was met with a pair of unblinking, chocolate eyes. The two shared a brief gaze of understanding and he was grateful when the silver boy spoke up to explain the Omega situation. He didn't have the heart to ask-- too embarrassed of his lack of knowledge.

Through another  _classic_  Suga lecture, he learned that there _were_ laws in place to prevent Alphas from attacking Omegas, but they were rarely enforced. The police, being made up mostly of Alphas, were even known to rape Omegas while they were on duty, and apparently, the Universities fared no better. Although, Suga did admit that the security staff on school days were somewhat effective in lowering the attack rates during class hours. The only organization that the silver boy seemed to trust was the  _Omega Protection Agency_ , or O.P.A, but the group was too small to handle the mass epidemic of Alpha violence. Moreover, it was hindered by the fact that their workers were nearly all Omegas and weak against the Alpha hierarchy. Even Omega hospitals had become so overrun that they had been forced to impose strict guidelines for their treatment. Only broken bones, injuries that wouldn't stop bleeding, or Omegas that had been unconscious for a certain period of time, were admitted.

The sudden barrage of information stunned Daichi, he had never known just how corrupt the system was and the unwanted realization made him very, very agitated. The two secondary genders shared this world, fifty-fifty, but in reality, things were much more complicated than he could have ever imagined. 

**Hajime~**

_Ten days._  It had been ten days since the Omega flock had scented up the entire house with their frilly, fluffy scents and Hajime was growing irritated with it.

"You've sure warmed up to Nishinoya, eh, big guy?" Oikawa smirked up at Asahi's tall figure near the silver refrigerator, patting the bunned giant on the back. "He's a cute one, isn't he~~"

Asahi flinched away in response, allowing the contact to continue out of good will. "Shhh, would you be quiet?!"

Hajime was, once again, _shocked_ that Asahi was an Alpha. He had only seen the giant fight once, and it was over some stupid Alpha girl back when they were in high school. Most of the time he was a big, soft teddy bear. Even Shittykawa, an _Omega_ , was able to push the him around with ease.

"Oi, Hajime. Stop staring at me like you're gonna eat me~~" Oikawa teased, playfully sticking out a pink tongue.

Hajime rolled his eyes and inwardly cursed himself for getting caught staring. He couldn't help himself, he had never met an Omega like Oikawa before-- the boy made him curious. Granted, he hadn't met many Omegas in general. Most of his experience was from fucking them, or from seeing them drugged out of their minds and groped up at clubs. Oikawa would never allow something like that to happen to him, or to anyone in his nest. It was admirable... _somewhat._

"I wasn't staring at you. You're in the way of the fridge," he lied with a snort and moved forward, trying to shuffle past the two boys in the way of his dinner.

"Liar, you were thinking about me~~" Came a response that made him stiffen with regret-- _he had been, but not in the way the the chestnut fucker was implying._

"Stop being an idiot. Get out of my way," he stated as plainly as he could manage, then grabbed Oikawa's shoulder to gently shove him to the left, into the marble counter beside the fridge.

"Hajime!" Asahi pleaded in a worried tone and held up his hands in fear. "You're not supposed to touch them! Didn't you listen to Suga!?"

"Oh, would you go away you big lug," he huffed back and waved Asahi's giant hands out of his way. "You're so huge, there's no space to breath in here."

The bunned giant apologized profusely to Oikawa on his behalf before exiting the the blue kitchen to the front entryway. He wasn't _lying_ when he had said that there was no space to breath in the kitchen-- Asahi's Alpha scent was masking Oikawa's fresh one-- a smell that he had to begrudgingly admit was rather pleasant.

His eyes widened at his internal admission and his body stiffened. "Oi, Shittykawa. Get out of here, too. Your scent is so stuffy," he mumbled to the chestnut boy at his side, covering his traitorous thoughts with a shallow, verbal lie.

"Fuck you! I smell wonderful!"

_He did._

"No, you don't. It's like an old boot mixed with a rotting fish."

"How cruel!"

"You're exhausting."

Hajime hated that his insults bounced right off the chestnut boy. It was like tossing a bucket of oil against a tiled wall, nothing he said ever stuck. He sighed and pinched the brim of his nose, he didn't want to be around Oikawa's scent any longer than he had to be. It was obvious that Asahi had succumbed to Nishinoya's fragrance, and even Daichi had begun to show symptoms of thirst towards that silver one, Suga. However, he knew that he was a stronger man than both of them. He wouldn't cave as easily as his father had-- cheating on his Alpha spouse with his whore Omega mother.

"You're still in the way of the fridge, Shitty-"

A loud snarl erupted from the entryway, cutting their verbal spat short. From the tone, and the rushing scent, Hajime knew that it was Daichi.

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

Hajime was the first to move, egged on by his flared up instincts--  _fellow...Alpha...angry...why_. He burst into the yellow entryway, only to find Asahi snarling next their very enraged captain. According to his nose, no other Alphas, household members or otherwise, were present inside their home. _Teammates...they must be still on campus,_  he thought out from his instinctual fog, _just what on earth had his pack members so riled up?_

Raking his gaze over the scene before him, he took note of Suga and Nishinoya standing in the doorway, both trembling, but doing their best not to show it. He scanned the room once more, looking for unfamiliar movement or scents, _anything_ that could stand as the cause for the Omega upset, but found nothing. He let out a small sigh of relief and allowed his tense muscles to relax, but Daichi and Asahi maintained their bristling anger-- too overwhelmed by their feral nature to think clearly. He could tell that their hot fragrances were affecting the frightened Omegas standing before them.  _Idiots...didn't they listen to Suga's tedious lectures?  Reign in your fucking scents, you punks._

"Daichi, Asahi, _please_ calm down. You're upsetting Nishinoya," Suga pleaded with the bristling Alphas. Hajime could tell, by both smell and sight, that he was just as affected as his nestmate was. Thankfully, he was more in control of his emotions than the smaller Omega on his left. If he hadn't been, Hajime was certain that his captain would have flown into a full on fit of Alpha rage.

"Who did that to you," Dachi spat and took a large step forward, ignoring Suga's pleas. "What. Happened."

Hajime huffed quietly to himself and rolled his eyes. Daichi was large, and tougher than he looked-- _he would be an absolute pain in the ass to physically handle, if it came to that._

"We just had an unlucky encounter. We're fine! It's just a few scrapes, nothing out of the ordinary," Suga rattled off, doing his best to project a sweet scent of calm that made Hajime's head spin. "Relax, everything is fine!"

"You. Are. Bleeding. From. Your. Forehead." Daichi barked out, balling up his fists in frustration. "Don't tell me that everything is fine!"

It was clear to _everyone_ present that it was taking ever ounce of Dachi's willpower stop himself from scooping up Suga and barricading inside the safety of his room. Hajime chuckled under his breath at the ridiculous notion, he needed to ease the tension. He was too tired to handle a physical altercation with his surly captain.

"Oi Daichi-" He attempted to verbally intervene, but was hastily interrupted by Oikawa.

He swiveled his head on its axis, unable to hide the shock in his dark eyes. He hadn't even noticed the chestnut Omega's fragrance, or his presence, at all-- and the kid was standing right next to him. In an instant, his Alpha instincts flared up, throwing him off guard with their sudden, unexpected presence. They screeched out inside his skull, commanding him to protect Oikawa from whatever invisible threat his Alpha packmates were agitated with. With great effort, he shoved the unwanted feeling away, but remained vigilant and on guard next to the chestnut Omega. Try as he did, he couldn't seem bring his feet to move away, not even an inch.

"Daichi, sit down on the stairs and focus on dissipating your rage. It _stinks_ and it's not helpful to the situation. There are clearly _no_ attackers here," Oikawa hotly barked, pointing a long, delicate finger at the growling Alpha in question. "And Asahi, for christ's sakes, relax your posture. You're going to get a kink in your neck with all that tension and that would fuck you up for volleyball. Look, just stand over there," he continued in command, motioning to the turquoise couch in the living room on his left.

Hajime watched on in awe as both Alphas did exactly as the chestnut boy commanded.  _Impressive_ , he mused, flashing his usual, cocky smirk at the tough presence Oikawa exuded. After a moment, the Omega swiftly returned to his side, forcing him to, yet again, ignore the coy feeling of pleasure that slithered across his chest.

Oikawa leaned in close to his ear and whispered, the close proximity sending a shiver down his spine. "In case you're wondering...I separated the big boys so their rage wouldn't keep bouncing off each other. Oikawa helpful tip number one~~"

Hajime's chest flooded with liquid affection at the intimate dialogue. He sighed, unsure of if he wanted to punch the tall, slender boy, or thank him-- it _was_ a good tip, after all.

"Now, Suga. Tell us what happened," Oikawa said in half-demand, leaning his back against the wall to cross his arms over his chest. "Put this whole thing to rest, shall we?"

As the Oikawa's sing song voice reached his ears, Hajime felt his mind devolve into an unfamiliar state of contentment. An oceanic scent washed over him, drowning him in its pleasant waves-- it was the strongest he had ever felt it. His vision blurred and soon, he felt an overwhelming urge to pull the chestnut Omega in an affectionate embrace... _and scent him...mark the him with his own fragrance. Fuck no, how fucking irritating,_  he thought to himself with a stressed yawn,  _fuck off with the Alpha crap, body._ He didn't even like the snarky guy as a person-- his cheeky personality was the bottom of the barrel. At that thought, Hajime made another attempt to step away from Oikawa's slender figure, _anything_ to lessen the power of his irritating instincts, but he found his legs still frozen in place.

"We just had a bad run in with a couple of Alphas. Nishinoya hit them pretty good with the spray though!" Suga asserted as he rubbed the back of his silver head and smiled sweetly. 

"PERFECT AIM, NISHINOOOOYYYAAA," the spitfire Omega shouted in turn, beaming with a wild grin that even had Hajime perking up with the eager energy.

"Daichi, satisfied with the information?" Oikawa turned to ask the irritated captain, cocking a knowing eyebrow. "You good?"

"No. But I'll deal with it," Daichi growled in reply from his position, pacing in front of the stairwell.

"Good. Asahi, satisfied? We all sorted here?"

"Fine," the giant barked back angrily, manipulating a couch pillow in his large hands to release his pent up frustration. "I'll deal."

"Good. Now, why don't you two go for a walk... _separately_ ," Oikawa said in light command, shuffling the two Alphas out of the front door. "Separately, separately~~"

Hajime chuckled in amusement at the affair--  _apparently, it was not a suggestion._

"And don't come back until you're feeling refreshed and your instincts are reset!" The chestnut boy called across the porch to the grumbling men, then slammed the oak door shut behind them. "Suga, upstairs. You and Nishinoya need a scent reset. Don't argue pleaseeee."

"Yes sir!" Nishinoya saluted before bounding up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"NISHINOYA, NOT IN THE NEST ROOM! YACHI, IT WOULD UPSET HER!" Suga cried out, hurrying to follow the spitfire up the stairs, albeit more elegantly than his eager nestmate.

Once Oikawa was certain the pair had made it to the third floor, he turned his attention to Hajime once more, leaning against the open archway to the blue walled kitchen.

"It seems like you and I are the only ones in the house who can manage their scents...and emotions...well enough in situations like this. At least, out of the people present here," he divulged, eyeing the Hajime down from a few feet away through narrow lids.

Hajime was shocked by the tone of admission, it was deadly serious, with not even a _hint_ of his usual coy, playfulness. He had never heard Oikawa be anything other than a joker. In fact, he didn't even think it was possible.

"Yeah I guess..." He replied, shrugging his broad shoulders against the plaster. "Sure..."

"Omega emotions are heavily affected by Alpha rage. Even if it's protective. If Alpha rage and Omega fear go unchecked, they will just fuel into each other and make the situation worse. So, one side needs to be reset before that happens," Oikawa quickly rattled off before turning towards the stairs to join his flock. "So, do your best, Hajime!" He finished in his usual, lighthearted tone, flashing a lopsided grin over the railing of the stairs. "Don't let me down."

Hajime watched the Omega disappear, too stunned to move.

_Don't let me down...._

He wanted to tear out his traitorous, fluttering heart that the serious words brought forth. It wasn't the tense situation that had left his body frozen next to Oikawa's, nor the disgusting scent of Alpha rage and Omega fear that lingered from it, poisoning the air. It was Oikawa's assertive actions themselves and his resolute scent-- his ability to handle Alpha emotions with ease. Hajime had to admit that the chestnut boy was reliable in a pinch, there was no denying it after everything that had just happened. For a moment, he let his mind wander around the idea, then he sat down on the plush couch and clicked on the television. He was now painfully aware that he had met his match-- Oikawa had just as much measured control over his own scent and emotions as he did. It certainly wasn't an easy feat, it had taken Hajime years of patient practice and now, he was more in control of his instincts than most Alphas in general, including his teammates. He yawned loudly and cracked his neck to the side, once again, finding himself unhappily impressed with the annoying Omega.

As he lazily flipped through the channels, a sudden feeling struck him like a nasty and unwanted bolt of lightning. He felt... _empty._  He lightly sniffed the air and found no trace of a fresh ocean scent... _he missed it._

**Sugawara~**

Suga was painting in the sun room on the third floor of the house, feeling at ease from the soothing, yellow walls. They reminded him of his grandmother's kitchen, and he needed that feeling after the events that had transpired earlier that day. Even though he pretended the opposite, the Alphas that had cornered him and Nishinoya _had_ frightened him-- and things could have been much worse. They had caught a lucky break in getting away unscathed. Regardless of how panicked he had been, he was not about to give up even a speck of his personal freedom in his fear. _He had a right to walk freely outside, undisturbed. He was a citizen. No Alpha was going to take that away from him._ He pondered the notion for a few more moments before shaking the growing apprehension from his mind. He wouldn't be able to keep his paintbrush straight if he kept reliving the _stupid_ event.

When a familiar scent washed over the room, he perked up at its mild, husky tones-- _Daichi_. The captain's fragrance was calmer than it had been earlier that afternoon, but he could tell that it was still laced with bits of chiseled anger. He plopped his brush in a glass of muddy looking water and swiveled around on his painting stool to face the dark Alpha.

"Hey, Daichi," he said, offering up a toothy smile to ease the Alpha's upset disposition. "What's up?"

"Suga..." The captain murmured, flicking his gaze between his floral painting and the hardwood floor.

"Daichi, don't be so serious and pensive," he ordered gently, waving a pale hand in front of his chest. "It doesn't suit you."

"You're all bandaged up?"

"Yeah, Omegas have lots of practice at it. Plus, we heal pretty darn fast! By tonight, I won't have a scratch on me."

"I _hate_ that," Daichi grumbled and took a small step forward before stalling in place, leaving a few feet of distance between them. He took in a large breath and exhaled out his stress, unwittingly hitting Suga with an overpowering scent of...protection. Again? Really? His traitorous body welcomed it, but his mind certainly did not.

"Yeah, I hate it, too," he proclaimed, desiring to change the subject-- he could take care of himself. He didn't need an overeager Alpha to babysit him.

 "No, I don't think you do understand. I don't even _understand_. This whole thing is just..." Daichi trailed off, eyes flickered up from the floor to meet his gaze. 

Suga paused, waiting for the captain to finish his train of thought, but was only granted with a tense silence. He mulled over the words--  _what didn't he understand? That Omegas were hurt on a daily basis? That Omegas could defend themselves without the help of Alphas?_   _Well...somewhat anyways_. He wanted to scrunch up his nose and flee the room to escape the captain's domineering scent. It held a similar tinge of emotion to his exboyfriend's scent, only Daichi's wasn't as.. _.selfish. S_ elfish or not, the blanket of protection that it happily offered up rattled Suga to the core. He was not something to be owned.

**Daichi~**

"No, you don't understand. I don't even _understand_. This whole thing is just…" Daichi trailed off, unsure of how to vocalize his feelings.

He shook his head and met Suga's tense gaze. It had only been ten days since the silver Omega had entered his life, yet, he was beginning to feel as if he couldn't live without him. As the days increased in number, he was finding himself better able to smell Suga from greater distances. Even when he settled down in his own room, lying under his dark covers ready for sleep to take him, he could pick up on hints of the sugary fragrance-- and things had only grown worse after the afternoon's events. He had smelled Suga's distress from nearly half a block away and the very moment it had hit his waiting nostrils, he felt as if the entire world was crashing down around him. A dark and terrible dread flooded every fiber of his body, a dread unlike anything he had ever experienced, and he had _no_ desire to go through it again.

"What is it that you don't understand?" Suga questioned sharply and then slightly winced at the hostile tone of his own voice. "Sorry...I just don't understand what you're getting at..."

Daichi was trying to put his thoughts to words, but he was just... _so angry_. When he finally saw Suga, and even Nishinoya, cross the yard towards the yellow house, his mind had snapped in two. He had figured that his instincts would calm when he saw the silver Omega safe, that was the logical conclusion. Instead, a slicing rage took over his body and mind-- a ferocious instinct that had commanded him to find, harm, and _kill_ whoever or whatever had made the two Omegas so upset.

He had long since acknowledged his feelings for Suga, he couldn't deny it any longer,  _but Nishinoya? Why did he feel the same instincts, albeit to a lesser degree, about the other Omega?_ He and Asahi had talked through the events on the front porch after they had cooled down and, much to his surprise, they had both agreed that they had felt a shared instinct. An overbearing idea that had crippled their minds, commanding them to  _protect the pack...their pack...including the Omegas._ It was a term that was pretty well unheard of, Alphas did not work well together when it came to Omegas, unless they had a familial bond. His instinct to protect the Omega of another Alpha, which Nishinoya practically was, had stumped them both.

"Have you ever heard of a sort of...pack mentality?" He finally asked, rolling his neck to loosen his screaming muscles. "I know it sounds strange..."

Suga furrowed his brows and gazed at him through narrow lids.

"Yeah...with wolves and other animals. I get the feeling that you're not talking about it in that sense...right?"

"No…" He murmured, splitting his attention between his torturous thoughts and their verbal conversation. "No, I don't mean it like that..."

"You mean...wait...are you saying that  _you_  felt that? This afternoon when Nishinoya and I..." The silver boy offered up before trailing off, perhaps aware that if he vocalized the event, it might set Daichi off again-- and he was right. "You felt...wait...pack meaning your Alpha pack...with my flock included?"

"Uh...yeah," Daichi revealed as he casually leaned back against the wall, planting his large hands in the front pockets of his dark jeans. "Both Asahi and I felt it, too. It's fucking weird. Alpha's don't...we don't share a mutual protection for Omegas. It was...I don't know, weird. Just weird."

Suga stood up from his wooden bench and took a large, sweeping step forward-- hazel eyes shining with curiosity. "You mean- what do you mean?! What did you feel?!" He hastily asked and Daichi felt his face flush with pink embarrassment-- desiring the Omega's attention, yet wanting to shrink back into the hallway away from it.

"When we saw that you were both hurt, our instincts were to protect both of you, like you were our own. The thing is...it didn't matter which of you was injured. The instinct was the same for both of us..."

The last part of the statement was a lie, he had been more concerned with Sugas safety than Nishinoya's, but he didn't want to scare the silver Omega off-- he was well-aware that Suga was wary of his protective scent, even if he didn't really understand the reason why.

"Really?!" The silver Omega exclaimed, vibrating with joyous anticipation. "Daichi! Do you know what this means?!"

"Uh, no. That's kind of why I'm asking you about it," Daichi replied with a meek laugh, shyly rubbing the back of his head. "So I could get a bit of insight..."

"It means-" Suga began, but abruptly stopped mid sentence and lost himself to what Daichi had recently learned was mindful contemplation. "It _means_ that I need to do some research," he loudly proclaimed before waltzing right past into the hallway, leaving a trail of sugary sweetness hanging in the air.

Daichi had no idea how or what the curious Omega was going to research, but he was excited to hear about it. He watched the silver boy trounce down the corridor and round the corner to the stairwell before checking his black wrist watch. Whatever the beauty was off to find, had to wait. He had volleyball practice.

**Sugawara~**

As Suga walked into the entryway of the yellow house, he noticed Asahi sitting on the turquoise coach with a very irritated Nishinoya in his lap. The gentle giant had his arms wrapped tightly around the tiny Omega and was grazing his colored hair along the scent glands in his neck.  _Well, it's about time,_ Suga mused with a coy smirk, putting his worries over the pairing to rest-- although Nishinoya looked agitated, the happy fragrance he was releasing told him that it was a mutual affair.

"Asahi, you think you've done that enough? It's been an _hour_. You're missing your damn volleyball practice!" Nishinoya whined and halfheartedly tried to struggle out of the giant's grasp. Asahi let out a quiet _tsk_ and shook his head, indicating that he wasn't planning on releasing the Omega any time soon. "Oh, come on!"

"I don't care. Hajime is skipping, too, and you aren't giving him the business," the giant mumbled into his squirming partner's brunette crown.

"Hajime is skipping because _he's_ a delinquent. _You're_ skipping because you're a big softy! It's an entirely different situation!" Nishinoya retorted back, huffing out a puff of air in frustration. "You need to be constantly honing your volleyball skills if you're going to make it big! Constantly. Honing."

"Oi, Suga. Where are you going?" Yamaguchi called out from the dining room, noticing Suga's quiet movements near the front door.

Suga tugged on a black converse, stumbling slightly on one foot before yelling back his reply. "I'm going to the library. Found out some cool stuff that I need to research!"

"Ya got your spray?" Nishinoya called out to make his voice heard over Asahi's large figure, blocking his line of sight.

Suga laughed at the audacious question, a full on gut busting laugh. "This, coming from _you?! You_ forget yours all the time! It was dumb luck you had it this afternoon when we were cornered!"

At his statement, Asahi let out a guttural growl, alerting everyone to his displeasure of the event, and Suga smelled Nishinoya's tranquil scent increase in response. He inwardly smiled, overjoyed that his little spitfire had nailed down such a kind, considerate Alpha.

 _It wasn't his cup of tea, but hey, good on the little nestmate._  

"What time will you be back, Sugaaaa~~" Oikawa added his voice to the fray from the blue kitchen. "Don't stay out too late pleaseeeee!"

"Let's say, 8:00 pm?"

"Always know what time your Omega friends will be returning! Keep track of their movements to better protect them! Helpful Oikawa tip number six~~" He heard his chestnut nestmate sing to, what he could only imagine was a very annoyed, yet amused, Hajime.

He forced on his second shoe and adjusted the leather strap of his bag across his chest. He was losing daylight hours, he had to get going before he got reeled into another conversation. "See ya in a few hours!" He shouted, to no one in particular, before exiting the lively house.

As he walked down the long and familiar block towards the main campus, he ran into a tired looking Keiji with a bouncing Shoyo at his side.

"Suga, where are you going?" Keiji paused on the pavement to ask, cocking a dark brow in question. "It's late you know..."

"I know...I'm just going to the library. I need to look up a few things. I'm not going to stay out that long."

"I hate that place, it's so stuffy! There needs to be a treadmill or, at least more sunlight!" Shoyo chimed in, and Suga chuckled at the state of his ginger hair-- _always a bedhead._

"Be careful. I don't like that you and Oikawa walk around by yourselves. I know you both have a stupid _freedom complex,_ but you should at least take your own advice and travel in groups of two," Keiji stated plainly, careful to not let any of his anxiety spill over into the words.

Suga blushed at the chastising remark and shuffled his feet over the pavement. "I know, but the Alphas are all at volleyball practice and I don't want to drag any of the flock out. It's only a fifteen minute walk, and it's still light out. I'll be fine!"

"You got your spray and phone on you?" Keiji questioned, slightly shaking his head in defeat. "Text me when you're there and when you leave."

"Yes," Suga laughed in response-- _at least his motherly nagging wasn't going unheeded._

Keiji huffed, then resumed his walk home. "Okay, see you soon, then."

*******

Suga puffed out a massive amount of air and leaned back in his desk chair, groaning in frustration. He had practically found nothing on the strange  _pack mentality_ Daichi had mentioned earlier.  _Well, almost nothing._  He did come across an old journal study from the seventies and he checked it out of the library archives for further research.The thing was over sixty pages long and packed full of unnecessary information, but he was certain that there was _something_ of value inside-- and he was grasping at straws at this point. He sighed again, and glanced down at the clock on his phone.  _7:30pm._  He needed to get going.

Packing up his things from the oak desk, he gingerly placed the checked out study inside his leather bag and buttoned it shut-- eternally grateful that Miyo had found the funds to purchase new school items for his Omega flock after they had been lost in the fire.

As he exited the library doors and entered the brisk night air, he was shocked to find that the sky was already darkening.  _The days are getting shorter,_  he mused,  _summer was coming to an end._

He was nearly at the edge of the formal campus when he ran into trouble-- trouble in the form of three, large, beefy, and terrifying Alphas.  _Just walk by them and don't make eye contact,_  he thought calmly to himself, shoving away a sudden wave of anxiety that rushed down to his scrunched toes. He reached into his leather bag and grasped at his Alpha spray to reassure himself, then focused all of his energy on reigning in his scent as much as possible.

"Oi, pretty boy!" One the the Alphas, a ginger, called in his direction. "What are you up to this fine evening?"

Suga averted his gaze, picked up his pace, and ignored the question.  _Just keep walking, just keep walking._

"Hey, don't ignore me, you Omega _slut,_ " the ginger yelled again, this time with more force. "I'm talking to you."

Suga briefly glanced towards the domineering pack, feeling an urge to run when he saw them walking swiftly towards him. He attempted to pick up his pace, opting for a panicked jog, but was quickly overrun. An Alpha, this one shorter with black hair, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled hard, bringing him unwillingly into the tangles of their group. He scrunched up his nose when their overbearing scents hit his senses at full force-- an unpleasant mix of alcohol and shameless desire.

The ginger Alpha grabbed his arms and pushed his small body up against the brick of the Humanities Building with ease. He did his best to stay his shaking body, but the situation had him very frightened-- something that greatly irritated his conscious morals.

"You are very pretty, my little puppy. And you smell _sooooo_ nice," his captor hissed, holding under his chin with enough force to bruise.

When the man brushed an ugly nose against Suga's neck and along his scent glands, a soft whimper slip from his quivering lips.

"I'm fucking him first! You guys can have the leftovers," the ginger growled, his grinning face inches from Suga's disgusted one. "There's plenty of him to go around..."

The remaining two Alphas stiffened, angry with the arrangement, but compliant.

"Do _not_ touch me. I do _not_ consent," Suga spat back into his attacker's face, jerking his body in an attempt to free himself from the harsh grasp. "Let the fuck go." 

"Good. I wasn't sure if you had any fight in you...you're so angelic looking I thought you'd just lie back and take it. I like it better when they struggle."

Suga shivered at the disgusting statement and the Alpha smirked at his fearful scent. He grabbed Suga's bag, harshly ripped it across his body, and threw it to the dark pavement. It contents scattered across the ground, the spray with it-- _his lifeline_. He cursed himself for not attacking them sooner. Oikawa would have, his nestmate wouldn't have given them a chance to gain the upper hand, but he had just allowed them to take him with relative ease. At that fleeting thought, he kicked out, fighting with all his might for his release, but he proved no match for the strength of his fit attacker. It was already too late for action.

The ginger sucker punched his lower abdomen to stay his legs, then forcibly pinned his delicate arms above his silver head, against the sharp brick. He narrowed his eyes, staring down his attacker with a cutting gaze but the Alpha chuckled at his anger, then planted a harsh slap on his pale face and licked along the scent glands in his neck. He whined at the unwanted touch, releasing a heavy musk of fear from his quivering body and his captor pulled away to lightly sniff the air.

"I _love_ that smell," he whispered hotly in Suga's ear before reaching under his shirt to pull it over his silver head with aggressive force.

Suga struggled more, calling out for help, only to be met with another harsh slap and a clamped hand on his lips.

 _"Shut up._ I'll make you feel good, baby, I promise. Omega _sluts_ like you always love my knot," the Alpha cooed in a gentle tone that made Suga's stomach pulse with twisted nausea.

He pushed down his urge to vomit and continued his struggles, using all of the remaining energy he had left to try and struggle free. When his attacker took his pink nipple in his mouth and bit down, drawing crimson blood, Suga cried out through his muffled mouth. The aggressive _foreplay_ did not last long, and soon, he was shoved down with his knees on the hard pavement. His body seized in panic when he felt his jeans being roughly torn down his slender, hairless legs. After a few moments of frozen terror, he snapped back, kicking and writhing around on the ground, scratching his exposed skin on loose pieces of gravel. Fighting tooth and nail for freedom.

"Struggle more. It makes my knot hard," the ginger Alpha whispered in his face, his large hand still clamped down hard on Suga's screaming mouth. "You're going to take _all_ of me and you're going to love it."

Suga did exactly that. Even when he felt a thick finger prod into his most private area, even when his attackers hand was removed and a large cock took its place, even when he was certain he would be violated in the worst possible way, he fought.

**Daichi and Kuroo~**

Daichi and his team piled into the entryway, greeted with the mouth watering smell of a home cooked meal and pleasant Omega fragrances. When the other Alphas let out hollers of excitement, he remained quiet-- _Suga's scent was missing._

"Where is Suga?" He asked to no one in particular, feeling the all too familiar panic set in once more. "Did he go out?"

"He should be back any minute," came a reply from the normally shy Yamaguchi. "He went to the library..." 

A small smile played across Daichi's lips, happy to see the freckled Omega slowly coming out of his shell, but his frantic anxiety returned mere moments later.  _He'll be back soon,_ he internally repeated in mantra, doing his best to believe the words.  _He's probably a few blocks away._

"Is that dinner for us!?" Tanaka yelled into the blue kitchen, beaming with energy. "There's so muuuuuch! So. Much. Food."

"It's for _everyone_ , but yes. We decided to make it as a thank you for your kindness," Keiji replied with a lazy yawn, wiggling his eyebrows at the bald Alpha from his position near the sink.

"Hey! Don't expect this to be a regular thing! We aren't housewives~~" Oikawa preached, peaking a head out from the kitchen to ensure that everyone heard his important declaration. 

"Kenma, how come to don't cook me dinner? I'm always the one cooking for you!" Kuroo whined down at his mate, who flashed a cheeky smirk in return. "You never treat me to anything like this!"

"I would poison you with my food. I can't cook. Don't be dumb," the cat-like Omega replied nonchalantly with a shrug of his narrow shoulders.

Every single Alpha was beaming at the smell of a hot meal. Even Tsukishima and Tobio had smirks plastered on their normally pensive faces.  _Everyone softened up around food, even Alphas,_ Daichi mused, trying to shift his attention from Suga's absence. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was _wrong_. It wasn't until a few minutes later, when Asahi put a large hand on his shoulder to interrupt his subconscious pacing in the entryway, that he realized what his instincts were telling him. He shot his teammate a frantic look and the bunned giant understood his tumultuous thoughts in an instant. The pair burst out the front door, leaving it wide open behind their sprinting figures. Seconds later, Hajime and Oikawa followed in kind.

"What's gotten into them?" Tanaka asked through a mouth full of rice, brows furrowed in confusion. "There's...food...here..."

Kuroo frowned as an unfamiliar instinct rose up inside his chest. _Protect the...pack?_ The feeling was minute, but its message was as clear as day. He shivered as the instinct walled itself in around his heart, settling in for a long stay. Glancing over the other Alphas in the room, he quickly reached a common understanding with most of them. They all had felt a similar twinge of the feeling.

**Hajime~**

When the group finally reached the Humanities Building, Daichi was the first of them to jump in attack. He released a guttural roar and yanked a stocky, ginger Alpha off a dazed Suga, huddled on the sharp asphalt. Asahi was quick to move and engage the lesser two Alphas, bowling into one with great speed, viciously bashing into his whimpering face-- bloodying his knuckles on the broken skin. Hajime made his own move to lurch forward at the remaining Alpha, but was quickly shoved out of the way by Oikawa. He watched on, stunned in place, as the Omega grabbed the last Alpha by the collar and threw him to the ground in one swift, almost professional, motion. For a brief moment, he felt an instinctual need to defend the chestnut boy, but decided against it when he smelled Daichi's rampant frustration-- his Alpha friend was torn between butchering his opponent to death and retrieving Suga.

He made the decision for his captain, running forward and kicking into the ginger Alpha's chest with a force that would wind him. Then, he piled on top of his new opponent, striking blows to the unprotected face. "Take. Suga. Safety." He managed to sputter out in between his attacks, his instincts making his words choppy and commanding. "Go. Now."

Daichi took a mere moment to comply and quickly wrapped the near-unconscious Suga in his black sweater, jogging off towards the residence district. The three remaining house members nearly beat the bloodied Alphas to death, but Oikawa stepped in to pull Hajime and Asahi off of their now limp opponents.

"They're not worth it. Let's go, we've accomplished what we needed," he declared, liquid anger laced into the tone of his voice.

Hajime knew that the chestnut boy wanted to kill the Alphas just as much as he did, but unlike he and Asahi, the wise Omega had enough sense to stop the fight.

Leaving their damaged opponents behind on the pavement, the three hurried to follow the direction of Daichi and Suga towards the yellow house, and it was not long before they found the pair a few blocks away.

"Wait here. I will clear everyone out of the main area. Suga deserves to keep  _some_ dignity," Oikawa spat out before jogging off towards the yellow house.

Hajime subconsciously followed behind, driven by the now familiar, instinctive feeling he was seeing more and more of. This time, he was too tired to shove it away, so he allowed it to move his body after the chestnut Omega. After everything that had happened, he was starting to feel a _conscious_ need to keep an eye on the slender boy, and that was exactly what he was going to do-- if only for the night.

After a few minutes, Oikawa had cleared the main floor and the remaining housemates entered the yellow safe house. Daichi's throat was in a constant rumble and he beelined straight up the stairs towards his room, with the frail Suga in his bloodied arms.

"All clear!" Oikawa yelled once he heard the door of Daichi's room slam shut, echoing down the stairs.

Nishinoya bounded down into the entryway, bowling into Asahi. "You're hurt! Where's Suga?" He cried, hurrying to get a warm washcloth to wipe the blood off of Asahi's mostly undamaged face.

The other housemates followed suit, quickly filling the main floor with their anxious chatter. Soon, Hajime could smell the Omega's anxious tension brewing in the air, blanketed by a strong Alpha scent of protection.  _Maybe,_ he pondered with furrowed brows,  _the other Alphas were feeling this strange protect the pact instinct he had felt before bolting after Daichi into the night._

As the main floor filled with questions of Suga and the events, Oikawa did his best to answer truthfully while also keeping Suga's dignity in tact. After nearly an hour, things at long last died down and Hajime found himself sitting next to the chestnut Omega on the living room couch, subconsciously enjoying the fresh, ocean scent. He snuck a glance at the boy and noticed that his chocolate eyes were darker than usual, heavy with emotional exhaustion. Hajime didn't like it-- it didn't suit the perky Omega. While he would never admit it out loud, he admired Oikawa's resolve during the fight, and he was even more impressed when he managed to beat the absolute lights out of one of them.

_Admiration...the word he kept coming back to, when he thought of the snarky boy._

He rolled his head back over the edges of the coach to glance at Asahi and Nishinoya in the dining area. They were giving off a rather pleasant scent-- Nishinoya was perched in the bunned man's lap, purring into his neck with affection. He lolled his head back to Oikawa and allowed himself to wonder, if only for a moment, what it would be like.


	3. Unwanted Ties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Trigger Warning***
> 
> (Short and sweet...I need to set up some new couples!)
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Three: Unwanted Ties**

**Daichi~**

Daichi did his best to lay Suga down in his bathtub as gently as possible, but he was shaking so profusely from his rage that he struggled to complete the task right away. The silver boy was barely conscious and he wanted nothing more than to take the frail boy to an Omega hospital. However, after their previous conversation, he knew that Suga would be turned away at the door. While he was very injured, especially by Daichi's standards, his mental injuries outweighed the physical ones...and those weren't as treatable. Plus, something told Daichi that he would be furious if he was taken to the hospital without his expressed consent. The Omega liked his freedom-- he was almost _too_ self-reliant for his own good. 

Daichi internally scuffled with his emotions as he gently bathed Suga in warm water, checking over his naked body for injuries and willing the scent of the disgusting Alphas away. The Omega had a lot of bruises, a few scrapes and scratches, and a whole mess of mental scars. He hated that the beautiful, slender body was covered in such violent injuries, and he hated himself even more for allowing it to happen in the first place.

Once he felt that Suga's boby was sufficiently clean, Daichi slipped the boy into a pair of his own black sweatpants and pulled a white undershirt over the silver head. Then, he gingerly tucked the Omega into the dark sheets of his bed and walked over to his window, cracking it open to freshen the air of the room. He wanted nothing more than to smell Suga's delicious scent-- to smell that the he was _okay_.

Daichi shuffled out of his own bloody clothes, opting for sweatpants and a black shirt. Crawling into the expansive bed, he cradled the Omega into the contours of his body and scented his light hair. Suga felt so fragile against his chest-- the monsters had touched him against his will, violated him roughly, and made him feel anxious and afraid... _made him feel worthless_. At that thought, his protective instincts flared up once more, fully taking control of his actions. He didn't care if Suga hated him for the scenting him...not after what had happened. At the very least, in doing it, the the boy would be a little more safe, even if it was just for the night. It certainly didn't afford as much protection as sleeping with him would, and it was nowhere near what mating could do, but it would be safe enough.  _For now._  Until Suga allowed him to claim lay his claim, Daichi wasn't planning on letting the Omega out of his sight.

"Daichi," Suga's soft call yanked him from him terrible thoughts and he had to stop himself from abruptly bolting up to check over the boy again. Luckily, he had enough logical control to remember Oikawa's lectures on the effectiveness of calming scents. So, he did his best to relax himself and willed his smell to exhibit a mild-mannered protection, over-played with a soothing fragrance.

"Suga, I'm so sorr-" He began, whispering in a guilt-ridden tone before being sharply cut off.

"Don't"

"But, I wasn't there."

"You _were_ there. If you weren't, I wouldn't be here right now. It's as simple as that." Daichi felt Suga lightly sniff the air against his chest and he internally panicked. "You scented me..." The silver boy whispered from beneath the covers.

_He felt guilty. He had to do it. It wasn't an option. There was no choice._

"It's...nice."

At the quiet affirmation, Daichi's heart swelled to an absurd size and Suga began to purr lightly against his throat. His actions had been redeemed. It was a small victory, he still would never forgive himself for what had happened earlier, but at the very least, Suga didn't hate him. For now, that was enough.

"Good," he whispered, rubbing Suga's petite back in small circles-- he had seen the boy do it many times to his nestmates. "Because it's going to be happening from now on."

When he felt the Omega lightly tremble with laughter against his body, he held on tighter-- worried that if he let go, even for a moment, the Omega would slip away from him forever. Indeed, he _almost_ had. As Suga's breathing slowed against his neck, Daichi vowed to never let him out of his sight again. _It was a vow of complete protection._

*******

Daichi was thrown awake in a panic when the small Omega wrapped in his arms began began thrashing about violently against his chest.

"No-NO-please-!" Suga cried out, bolting upright in the large bed with wide eyes, startling him from sleep. "NO!"

"Suga, Suga, it was just a dream, you're _safe_ ," he pleaded, holding the sobbing Omega to his chest, feeling pang after pang of panic wash over him.

From what he could tell, Suga  _was_ awake.  _Maybe it's a panic attack?_  He willed himself to project a tranquil scent, anything to help the situation, but the Omega was releasing such a powerful coat of fear-- it was thickly souring the air of the small room and he couldn't keep up with its sheer intensity. The smell was becoming nearly unbearable for him, but it was not as unbearable as seeing  _his_  Omega in such a violent state of duress. The only thing worse, was the creeping feeling that was settling itself into his bones, telling him that there was nothing he could do to calm the boy down. As the unnerving feeling struck home, he lost himself to absolute panic. He needed help, and there were many people in the house that could provide it. Now wasn't the time for him to be selfish, it was clear that his presence was only making Suga's upset worse.

He quickly flipped through the archives of his mind, searching for the right person.  _Oikawa. Oikawa would know what to do._ He scrambled out to reach for his cell phone, charging on his bedside table, and prayed that the other Omega would pick up at such a late hour.

"Daichiii, why are you waking me up from my beauty sleep?" Came Oikawa's yawning answer on the other end of the line.

"Oikawa. Suga. Hurt. Help."

It was all Daichi could manage, his protective instincts had fully taken over, making his words choppy and irrational. _His Omega was hurt, and there was nothing he could do about it._

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa pushed into Daichi's room, instantly analyzing in the scene before him with all of his senses. He didn't care that his normally quaffed hair was a mess, or about the dark bags under his eyes, every single fiber of his being was focused on Suga.  _Was he okay? What had happened?_  The moment he saw the state of his noble, Omega friend, he realized that the silver haired boy was having a night terror. They were fairly common among Omegas, trauma was their bread and butter, after all. He internally cursed himself for not warning the Alphas about it earlier-- because of that, Daichi was in his own fit of Alpha rage, battling his flaring instincts from the sour scent of fear.

"Move, Daichi," Oikawa said in a stern, yet concerned tone, but the Alpha didn't make a move from his position-- his muscular arms fixed around the blubbering Suga in his lap. "Daichi, I need you to listen to me so Suga can get better, okay? Please _try_ to listen through your instincts. You need to move. I need you to do this so I can help Suga."

After a few nasty snarls, Daichi successfully fought through his emotional state and gingerly detached himself from the silver Omega, scenting the boy before rising to his feet near the bed. Oikawa immediately crawled over dark sheets of the king sized mattress and positioned himself against the back headboard behind the sweaty, silver haired Omega. Then, he gingerly laid Suga against his own chest and wrapped his long legs around the boy's tiny waist. Daichi's gaze burned into him from his bristling position near the door, but he tuned it out. His nestmate was all that mattered.

As he began to rock back and forth, swaying Suga's tense body with his own, he sang softy. "You are safe. You are loved. Suga baby, please wake up. It's your friend, Oikawa. No one is going to hurt you." After a few minutes, he felt Suga begin to melt into the words, slowly but surely calming down in his embrace. "Suga, I love you. _No one_ will hurt you, my beautiful baby," he continued on, singing and rocking, all while projecting a massively tranquil scent.

While things went smoothly for nearly ten minutes, he was startled from his task when a low and possessive growl erupted from Daichi's throat. He stopped singing but continued swaying his body, looking over to the Alpha near the door. He slightly stiffened under Suga's dead weight when he realized that the captain was losing the struggle to control himself-- quickly devolving into a possessive, feral state.

_He had overestimated the reach of Daichi's Alpha control._

"Daichi, I _need_ you to calm down. Your scent is not helping Suga right now," he stated calmly, keeping the fear that was seeping into his heart from reaching his voice.

The Alpha growled again, this time much louder, and took a confident step forward. His domineering scent was crippling, alerting Oikawa that he was falling prey to a violent mood of possessive instinct. A mood that would not hesitate to slice clean through him to get to Suga.

"Daichi, _listen_ to me. I know that I sometimes give off an Alpha vibe, but I'm an _Omega_. Remember Daichi, I am an _Omega_. I am not trying to take away Suga from you. You know this, Daichi. You called me, remember? To help."

When Daichi took another confident step forward, he readied his frightened nerves. He knew that the captain wanted nothing more than to defend Suga, but if he wasn't in control of himself, he would attack anything and everything near the silver Omega- including him. Oikawa adjusted his unconscious nestmate against his chest and readied himself for combat, but the door behind Daichi suddenly opened and Hajime's figure entered the dim room. He watched the yawning Alpha in stunned silence as the man briefly took in the situation, then grabbed the snarling captain by the collar of his shirt and roughly pulled him from the room.

Oikawa took in a deep breath,  _lucky, lucky,_  he thought to himself before resuming his task, rocking and singing his Omega friend out of his night terror.

**Hajime~**

Hajime wasn't sure what had woken him up from his much needed slumber. He glanced over at his clock on his bedside table--  _2:33 am...why the fuck was he awake?_  He let out a frustrated groan and turned over on his mattress, willing his body to fall back to sleep, but after a few minutes of battling an irritating instinct, festering deep inside his chest, he rolled the covers off. He pulled on some black sweatpants to cover his naked body, and exited into the dark hallway, unsure of where exactly he was going.

As he approached Daichi's room, near the stairs to the main floor, his nose was struck with a series of powerful scents. Suga's sweet fragrance, wildly distressed. Daichi's, protective and angry. And another...he paused for a moment near the top of the stairwell, trying to ascertain what it was. The unknown scent was overwhelmed by the other ones, but he could slightly pick up on its subtle tones... _Oikawa?_  It was calm and oceanic, but held a hint of... _fear._  Before Hajime could even consciously command his body to move, he had already entered Daichi's room.

The room's owner stood bristling in front of him, ready to pounce on the frightened, yet resolute, figure of Oikawa-- perched on the dark bed with his long, beautiful legs wrapped around a very agitated Suga. It took Hajime a mere millisecond to ascertain just  _who_  exactly needed to be removed from the situation. He grabbed Daichi roughly by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.

The captain attempted to struggle against him, but Hajime could tell that he was doing his best to fight against his frantic instincts. Hajime dragged the upset Alpha down the stairs, out the front door, and planted him down on the stairs on the porch, then plopped down beside him. They sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the cool night air wash over them as Daichi's overactive and aggressive scent began to dissipate.

Hajime chuckled under his breath, hearing Oikawa's advice penetrate his tired mind--  _separate them before one of their scents goes unchecked!  He was annoying, but the Omega definitely knew his shit._

"Fuck," Daichi said at last in exasperation and placed his head against his bent knees. "How did I let myself get like that? I couldn't control anything. _Fuck_."

"Eh, you _are_ an Alpha. Shit happens. Don't worry about it, nobody got hurt," Hajime replied lazily, stifling a deep yawn. He glanced over at Daichi-- his Alpha friend was visibly upset with himself.. _.he was ashamed._ "Look, Suga wasn't even conscious, so I wouldn't worry about him seeing you in that state."

"Yeah…"

"But Oikawa, man, he's going to hold this shit over your head _forever!"_ Hajime chirped and let out a tired laugh, successfully lightening the damper mood. "God help you."

Daichi gave his own, tentative chuckle at the notion. "I'm the one who called him, you know. I _asked_ him for help, and he gave me it, no questions asked. And I couldn't even control myself enough to let him do what needed to be done. Even when I saw that he was actually calming Suga down...the thoughts just twisted up inside my head. He was calming Suga when I couldn't. I hated it. I still hate it."

Hajime yawned again and rose to his feet to stretch his aching back. "Sometimes, the feeling of safety that an Omega needs can't really be provided by an Alpha. Not even one that they're mated with. That's why it's important to make sure they aren't isolated from their own kind," he recited over his shoulder to the hunched captain. "Shittykawa tip number eight."

"Man, the guy knows everything. It's kind of impressive," Daichi confessed, throwing his head back in awe. "And he can fight just as well as I can..."

Hajime nodded, ignoring his desire to growl at Oikawa's tendency to put himself in danger. "I know. Fucking Omegas are smarter than we are, and we're the ones who have all the good schooling and professions."

"Pretty fucking backwards. I didn't know it was like this. It's...wrong."

"Yeah…" Hajime agreed, tapering off the word with a deep sigh. "I'm gonna grab some coffee, you want anything?"

"No...thanks."

Hajime shrugged at the captain's answer and moved inside to grab some sustenance-- _anything_ to keep his tired eyes awake for a little longer.

**Oikawa~**

After about an hour, Oikawa was finally confident that Suga had fallen into a restful sleep that would last the night. He gingerly tucked the Omega into the navy covers and made his way down the stairs, pleased to see that Hajime had successfully brought Daichi back to his senses. The two Alphas were melted into the couch, watching quiet infomercials on the quiet television. As he approached, the captain hastily rose to his feet, likely noticing his presence by scent.

"Is Suga okay?" He questioned quietly, panic lacing the rings of his dark eyes.

"He's fine. He's sleeping. It was a night terror. Tomorrow, you're gonna get an entire lesson about them, from me. For now, you should go back up stairs and go to bed. I think he'll sleep through the night this time."

Daichi physically relaxed at the response and quickly made his way towards the stairs. Before continuing to the second floor, he promptly stopped, put a large hand on the Oikawa's narrow shoulder, and lightly squeezed. "I'm _so_ sorry, Oikawa. Really. I fucked up tonight."

"Heeeeeeeeey, don't sweat it, big guy. I know how you Alphas can get," Oikawa replied nonchalantly, flashing a tired smile. He already knew that Daichi was truly horrified by his own actions, there was no need to chastise him any further. "But, don't let it happen again, though," he tersely added, all signs of humor lost from his tone.

Daichi nodded in understanding, then pushed forward, making his way up the stairs and disappearing in the dark hallway. Oikawa sighed and rubbed the back of his head, turning his attention to Hajime. "Not how I pictured my night."

"You're telling me," the remaining Alpha replied with a salty tone, lazily clicking through the channels.

Oikawa wandered over to the couch and plopped himself next to the grumpy man. He wanted to thank him, but he didn't want to give the snarky Alpha the satisfaction-- it would just go to his head.  _Although, him showing up was quite the stroke of luck,_  he thought to himself,  _how and why did he even intervene in the first place?_ Oikawa didn't have the energy to piece together an answer. Instead, he glanced over to the tired Alpha at his side. He hated to admit it, but Hajime was an attractive man. More than once, he had caught his thoughts wandering around him... _wondering what it would be like to be scented… or even fucked by him._ Sometimes, it took everything he had to shove them away to the deep recesses of his mind, and it was growing more difficult with each passing day. 

**Hajime~**

Hajime was too tired to ignore the fragrance of sea salt and fresh laundry that was radiating out from Oikawa's position next to him on the turquoise couch. He silently praised himself for staying, _mostly_ , calm earlier, despite the overwhelming scents of Suga, Daichi, and  _Oikawa_. He had always taken pride in being in control of his Alpha instincts, however, he knew that this time, he had no right to be all that pleased with himself. He had succumbed to an immense feeling of dread the moment he smelled Oikawa's distress in the hallway-- it was the only reason he had intervened in the ordeal at all. It wasn't the same fearful instinct he had felt when Suga and Nishinoya had come home scraped and bruised, nor was it the same as when he had run after Daichi to find Suga. It was something else.. _something more personal._

He glanced over to the Omega and was startled to see beautiful, brown eyes staring back at him. "You look tired," Oikawa chirped, playfully bumping him in the shoulder.

"I am tired," he quipped back, ignoring the pleasant feeling that the brief physical contact had spurred within him. "I had to save your helpless ass and babysit a crybaby Alpha for the last hour."

"I was _not_ helpless. I had everything under control."

Hajime wished he could believe the coy words. Oikawa had more than proven that he could handle himself, but it didn't make him feel any better. At the end of the day, the slender boy was still an Omega-- still vulnerable from of his heat cycle and his scent.

"Yeah sure," he drawled sarcastically, his eyes fixed on the television as a distraction. "I'm _sure_ you could've thrown Suga over your shoulder and taken Daichi out. No problem. Easy."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Hajime~~" Oikawa retorted, once again making it abundantly clear that his self autonomy was very important to him-- that it was not something to be joked about.

"Whatever," Hajime conceded with a gentle shrug. It was all he could manage as a response. He was so exhausted and Oikawa's scent was all-consuming. He wished that he had the energy to fight against it, but he was too drained. The fragrance made him want to drown in it while fucking the boy into the soft couch cushions.

"Why _were_ you awake?" Oikawa unexpectedly interjected, catching him off guard with the question.

"What?"

"It's not like you. Your sleep schedule is impeccable. Eleven to nine, every night without fail."

Hajime's heart jumped-- _Oikawa had been paying him enough attention to know his sleep schedule._ "I was...thirsty. Smelled the conflict, thought I'd check it out," he lied-- something that was becoming a common occurrence for him recently. Especially when it came to Oikawa.

"Huh," the chestnut Omega huffed in resignation before rising up from the couch. "Well, I'm going to get my beauty sleep. Rest well Mr. Alpha~~" He yawned lazily, gave Hajime an audacious wink, and started towards the stairs.

Hajime listened intently as the Omega made his way up to his nest on the third floor. After he was certain that he was alone again, he sniffed the air and sighed. The enticing scent of ocean waves was dissipating into _nothing_. He continued enjoying the fragrance until it was all but gone, then shook his head to come back to his senses.  _What the fuck was he doing?_  He _needed_ to regain control over his eager instincts.  _Oikawa was not his type, not by a long shot._ The boy was too wily, too self-assured, and definitely not submissive enough for his tastes.

He hiked himself up from the couch, not even bothering to turn off the television, and made his way up the stairs to his bedroom. Tomorrow, he would form a plan to end his irritating instincts once and for all.


	4. Changing Instincts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Trigger Warning***
> 
> Authors note: I am very unhappy with the chapter...and the previous one, but there's not much I can do other than rewrite them...which I do not have the heart or energy to do right now!
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Four: Changing Instincts**

**Hajime~**

When Hajime woke the next morning, he knew exactly what he was going to do. He had experienced the most terrible sleep he had ever had-- subtle hints of Oikawa's fragrance had drifted into his room throughout the night, leaving him in a state of perpetual exhaustion. He knew that he needed to do something about the unwanted feelings that were growing in his mind before it was too late. They were leaving him anxious, festering inside him like an open wound. The only thing solution he had managed to come up was to return to his roots-- he was going to go out, get plastered, and fuck a few Omegas to shake Oikawa from his mind.  _For good._

After rinsing off his morning grime, he made his way down to the stairs, stopping briefly to take note of the mixed scents of Daichi and Suga that were emanating from the former's room.  _They were calm this morning, good._ At that thought, he made his way to the main floor and into the blue walled kitchen. Inside, he was greeted by an overly energetic Tanaka-- something he did not need so early in the morning.

"Oi, Hajime. You look like shit!"

"Shut it, Tanaka. Not in the mood."

"Ooooooo, sensitive this morning, I see."

"You wanna go out tonight? I need a good fuck," Hajime drawled as he stuffed a green apple in his mouth, leaning his back against the white kitchen sink.

"Very, veeeery sensitive this morning!" The bald Alpha prodded, giving him a cheeky wink. "Yeah, I'm game man. We could hit up a seedy club, for sure."

Hajime nodded and swallowed down another large chunk of crisp apple. "I'll call some of the other guys from the volleyball team, seeing as we have a house full of Omega lovers now."

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. Plus, Tsukishima and Tobio do nothing but study and sleep. Call Bokuto, he's always a wicked time."

"He's alright."

"Oh God, Hajime, maaaan. Polish up that attitude before we go out, I'm beggin' ya!"

"No promises."

In reality, Bokuto was just the person he needed-- someone who was exceedingly indifferent to Omegas and their _marginalized_ condition. It was an indifference that he hoped would rub off on him. Tossing the core of his apple into the kitchen garbage, he shuffled into the entryway, pulled on his runners, and set out for a head-clearing jog.

***

"Hey, hey, hey!" Bokuto called out as he crossed the dark street towards the two Alphas-- standing beneath a flickering streetlight. "Tanaka, my man! You're looking fresh as always. And my snarky boy, Hajime, let's let loooooose. Let's get fucked!"

The three boys made their way down the block towards the club they most frequented, and waltzed to the front of the packed entry line. It was one of the few perks that came with knowing Bokuto. _Sure_ , Hajime found him annoying, but the owl boy  _did_ know a lot of useful people.

As they stood waiting to gain entry, pink and blue strobe lights reflected out of the open entrance, bouncing off of Hajime's tense form. His early jog had done little to mitigate his poor attitude-- an attitude he blamed _solely_ on Oikawa. He steadied his resolve and internally promised that he would forget all previous thoughts off the chestnut Omega the moment he stepped foot inside the club.

After a few minutes, Bokuto finally pried himself away from his bouncer friend and led the boys through the dramatic archway guarding the entrance of the building. Inside, the main area was set up in a square, with a large, circular bar in the middle made entirely of marble, or at least, a cheap knock off of it. To the left, a vibrant dance floor raged on--flashing strobe lights combing over its sweaty inhabitants. Standing opposite the dance floor, a jumble of glass tables and dart boards stood resolute, boxing in a variety of drunk Alphas-- those looking for a more casual night than the dance floor offered. Hajime glanced up at the familiar second floor, a continuous laneway around the outermost walls of the club. Rooms covered by vibrant sheer curtains outlined the sturdy balcony, hiding the shadowy figures fucking within them. Oftentimes, _he_  had been one of those figures and he planned to be one of them again tonight.

As per usual, the overzealous scents of both Alphas and Omegas hit Hajime like a sack of heavy bricks. A few feet ahead of him, a large brunette Alpha with pierced ears caught his attention. The man threw a balled fist into a smaller blonde Alpha, snarling possessively over a dazed Omega at his side. The Omega boy, no older than twenty, had glassy, unfocused eyes, seemingly unphased by what was going on or what his fate would be.

Hajime huffed to himself and rolled his tense shoulders. It wasn't like the Omegas in the club were  _forced_ to be there-- they offered themselves up to Alphas at their own discretion. However, for the first time in Hajime's life, he found himself questioning the motives behind their actions. _What tragedies could have caused a person to succumb to immense drug use and sexual promiscuity? Surely, if they were in their best minds, they would never choose such a life for themselves._

Before he had time to feel a pang of grief for the Omega boy, Bokuto roughly grabbed him by the shoulders and yelled, "shots!" Subsequently, the owl dragged his companions over to the expansive marble bar, yellow eyes eager for beer. "Three-no, NINE Tequilas!" He called out to a female Alpha barkeep. She flashed him a disinterested glance, then quickly placed a series of empty blue shot glasses down across a rubber catch mat and poured golden alcohol across them.

"Hey, baby you look like a good time!" Bokuto chirped with a wicked smile as the bartender placed bad looking limes across the salty rims of their order. She rolled her aqua eyes at the quip and her blond ponytail swung across her back as she shook her head in resignation.

"I'm not interested in Alpha sluts. Especially ones that look as weak as you do. Move along, owl boy," she lazily replied without looking up from her task.

Bokuto was visibly taken aback, but quickly recovered from the rejection. "WHAT?! I'm Godzilla in the streets and King Kong in the sheets, baby! You don't know what you're missing out on," he declared loudly and the beautiful bartender cracked a slight smile at him remark.

 _Huh, maybe the idiot had a shot with her after all,_  Hajime thought with a surprised chuckle.

"Ohhhhhhh, Bokuto! What a killer pick up line!" Tanaka yelled, granting his Alpha friend a massive ego boost with a supportive clap on the back. "How do you do it?!"

The boys took their shots with relative ease, though Tanaka did make a few pursed faces at the sour liquid, and purchased a couple of pitchers of light beer-- much to Hajime's discontent, he preferred hearty, amber ale. Bokuto yelled something along the lines of, 'I'll be back for you,' to the pretty barkeep before following his friends away from the bar. They set themselves up at one of the glass tables and quickly initiated a game of darts-- unphased by the brawl that was occurring a few feet to the right of them.

"So, I hear you guys have some juicy Omegas staying at your house," Bokuto questioned, he eyes shining with unchecked curiosity."Lucky ducks!"

"Yeah," Hajime grumbled out a reply as he threw his dart, hitting the center of the board with ease--  _calling them lucky was a bit of a stretch._

"NO FAIR, Hajime! Why the fuck are you good at _everything_ ," Tanaka whined and took a big gulp of his ale, setting it down with an angry clank.

"Have either of you fucked any of them?" Bokuto pushed on, throwing his own dart, seemingly unphased by Hajime's previously perfect shot.

Tanaka sighed as he casually pulled the darts from the board, then marked score tallies on a white napkin in front of him. "Yeah fucking right. I mean, one doesn't even leave her room. She's scared of us, has some sort of _trauma_ , or something. This other one has this crazy, wild orange hair that's suuuuch a turn off. Plus, he never shuts up and his scent is obnoxious."

 _Kind of like you_ , Hajime thought to himself before tuning his ears back to the bald Alpha's monologue.

"There _is_ this silver haired one that's pretty, but Daichi claimed ownership over him pretty fast..."

"I KNEW-" Bokuto started loudly, pausing to throw his second dart. "I KNEW IT. I knew that fucker was getting some ass! He's been acting weird at practice all fucking week. Less moody and...well...less like you, Hajime," he quipped, pointing a lazy finger in Hajime's bored faced as he swiftly chugged half of his beer.

Before Hajime had the chance to chirp back, the owl resumed his chatter. "You know what I mean, right, Tanaka? Normally, Daichi's like, 'guys calm down, guys pay attention to practice.' So bossy and focused all the time. Buuuut, lately, he hasn't been lecturing anyone. He's even been laughing at Yuji's shitty behavior! I knew something had to be up."

"Right?!" Tanaka yelled and motioned upwards in a dramatic fashion, slightly sloshing his golden beer on the tiled floor beneath their table. "Dude, Asahi is even close to mating with one. I swear to you, on my life. It's mental."

Bokuto rolled his eyes and took another casual swig of his ale. "That's fucking unsurprising. He always was a big lug."

"Oh fuck, I forgot," the bald Alpha slurred and leaned forward across the table, pointing a knowing finger in Bokuto's excited face. "There is this gorgeeeeeeeeous freckled one, but he's so damn shy! And he does everything he can to avoid us. It drives me mental!"

Bokuto chuckled at the Alpha's irritation and smirked. "How many are there? In your house now, cause Kenma still lives there, right?"

"Uh," Tanaka started, mentally counting their new roommates with furrowed brows. "I think there are six of them...no...seven. I always forget about Keiji. He doesn't smell like an Omega, it's fucked. Actually, he doesn't act like one either and he's not the only one."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" The owl replied, pouring the remaining liquid from a pitcher into his awaiting glass.

"Well, there's this tall, snarky one. He's got this great ass and smells sooo delicious. I wouldn't mind knotting him, if he wasn't such a pain in the ass. He's got this kind of, cocky, overconfident attitude that I've never seen in an Omega before. It's fucking weird...and kind of a turn of ya know what I'm sayingggg."

Hajime stiffened mid-sip at Tanaka's crude remark and casually looked off into the distance, doing his best to prevent a possessive growl from escaping his throat. 

 

 _Really? One night,_  he thought angrily to himself,  _one fucking night without Oikawa skirting across his mind. Was it too_   _much to ask?_

"Hajime," Bokuto chirped, drawing his attention back to the irritating conversation. "You haven't made a single snarky comment, what's going on in that dopey head of yours?"

Hajime glanced over to the owl and slowly blinked, feigning disinterest. He wanted nothing more than to convince himself that his new Omega housemates were a thorn in his side. In fact, he had planned the outing because he _knew_ that both Bokuto and Tanaka were always extremely vulgar and uncaring in their language when it came to Omegas. He had hoped that their harsh words would snap him back to his regular mentality-- that they would unwittingly help him reset his growing interest in Oikawa. Instead, his entire plan blew up in his face from a single sly comment. He hated his traitorous mind. He never used to be so... _sensitive_.

"Yeah...they can be a pain. None of them are fuckable," he stated at last, realizing that he had to, at the very least, say something about the situation-- lest his teammates catch on to his sympathetic thoughts.

Bokuto wrapped a gorilla-like arm around him and whistled loudly. "Well, I guess we had better scout out some slutty Omega for you tonight. You look like _shit_...you obviously could use a good lay. It's probably such a tease being around a bunch of Omegas allll day long, especially ones that you can't even fuck."

"Yeah, man," Tanaka chimed in agreement. "You've sucked at volleyball lately, too. You really need to get a laaaaaaaaaaay."

Hajime smirked at the honest comment. _That_ _was exactly his plan...well...his back up plan._ The crude comments by his friends had fallen short of their desired effect, so he was going to physically fuck Oikawa out of his mind instead.

The three teammates hastily finished their pitchers and dart game, the latter of which Hajime had easily won, and drunkenly rose to their feet. It wasn't long before he could feel his the liquid courage take over his mind. If Alcohol made Omegas into thirsty whores, it made Alphas fuck machines. He was going to take full advantage of it.

"I'm gonna gooo twy and hit up that sexcy barteener agan," Bokuto slurred, taking a few stumbling steps towards his prize at the central bar. "Tanaka! BACK ME UP SON."

"Youuuu-youuuu got eet, owl boyyy. Hajimeee, find yerself an Omega and get outta your funk!"

Hajime rolled his eyes and watched, through slightly blurred vision, as his two teammates hobbled over to the glowing, marble bar. He absentmindedly stepped out of the way of a small brawl that erupted next to him and turned to scout the club for a claimable Omega. On the dance floor, he located three of them moving sluggishly to the beat. When he noticed that each one was more messed up than the last, a heavy, frustrated sigh escaped his pursed lips-- the old him would be all over their intoxicated forms...but the new him was feeling nothing but empathy.

His dark eyes grazed over the dance floor for a few more minutes, internally fighting a losing battle against his sympathetic thoughts, until his vision was torn away by a small figure that had roughly bumped into his ribs. Glancing down, he took in the form of a tiny, mouse haired Omega, looking up at him with glazed, green eyes. He scrunched up his nose at her troubled scent-- a combination of alcohol, drugs, and the pages of a new book.

"Oi, get over here, you tease," a large and beefy Alpha slurred from a few feet away. When he moved to roughly grab the girl, Hajime released a possessive growl. 

 _Protect the Omega,_ his instincts roared out, startling him with their intensity. The sudden rise of his feral nature perplexed him. They didn't erupt because he desired to sleep with the small girl...but because he didn't want the other Alpha to hurt her.

"What? You want to fuck her? You can have her after me, scouts honour," the black haired Alpha drawled, misinterpreting his intentions-- but Hajime rolled with it.

"How about I fuck her first, and _then_ you can have her," he said with a threatening snarl, his statement half a lie. He _was_ planning on sleeping with the girl, even if it took every mental fiber of his being to do so, but it hadn't been the source of his aggression.

The Alpha matched his growl, unwilling to give up his prize, but Hajime knew that he wouldn't have to fight for his claim. He had a stronger, more dominant Alpha scent than his opponent. Growling from deep from within his throat, he gingerly grabbed the shaking Omega and pulled her over to his side, making his intentions clear.

His opponent momentarily hesitated, then conceded with a shrug. "Whatever man, just throw her back in the mix when you're done," he spat before hobbling towards the dance floor to find another Omega.

Hajime shook his head in disgust, then looked down at the small girl at his side. He shoved down an instinctual pang of sadness when he realized that she didn't seem to care about her own well-being, let alone what was going to happen to her.  _Fuck this_ , he thought to himself,  _just fuck her and get it over with._

He directed the girl up the iron stairs to the tiled balcony of the second floor, gingerly holding the back of her neck to guide her, all the while, consciously willing her natural fragrance to overtake the smell of alcohol. It took a few laps for the pair to find a vacant room and he grew increasingly agitated as the girl's scent grew more fearful with each passing minute. He willed himself to ignore it and pushed forward to find a private area to make his claim.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he pushed the Omega, with more force than he intended, into a curtain canvassed room and stepped in behind her. He reached out behind him and shifted the pink curtains closed, blocking out the wild world around them. After swiveling around to face the Omega, he watched her undress, his bulge growing at the sight of her small perky breasts and soft, pink nipples. His gaze skittered up to her collar bones, unhappy to find them lined with nasty bite marks.  _Ignore it,_  he commanded himself,  _this was going to work. This was going to banish that Shittykawa from his mind._

The tiny girl shimmied out of her white skirt, revealing a small mound and delicate thighs that were dripping with an unusual amount of sex. Hajime lightly sniffed the air-- she wasn't in heat, so whatever drugs she had taken was causing her body to overreact. Another pang of sympathy shot through his heart and he subconsciously released a frustrated snarl.  _No,_  he shoved his biting instincts away again,  _he was going to do this. There was a naked, willing Omega standing right in front of him._ _He was going to do this._

"What do you want from me? I...can call you master...if you want? I can take it in any hole you desire...too. I'll be a good Omega for you," the girl whispered mechanically, but Hajime could smell her natural fear seeping into the hot air around them.

He _would_ have liked the girl to call him master or sir, a personal preference of his, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to request it.

_Take it slow, Hajime, just get a fuck in for tonight. Regain your old self._

"Get on your knees and present yourself. Do not move," he growled in a low, throaty rumble, influenced by the scent of her sex.

He quickly pulled his white shirt over his head, not even bothering to see if the Omega had done as he asked, and unbuttoned his black jeans. His cock was already standing at attention. It had been too long since he had fucked and his body was eager, even if his mind was not. He hadn't slept with anyone, Omega or otherwise, in two weeks-- a abnormally lengthy period of time for him.

 _Shit, was that really how long it had been?_  He thought to himself, pondering his sex life as the female Omega got into position in front of him. The last time had been before the Omegas had moved in.

 _The...Omegas...Oikawa._ He shook his head to banish the flickering image of the chestnut boy from his mind-- _that was enough of that. There was a piece of Omega ass naked and waiting in front of him, and he was going to take her._

He took a few steps towards the girl, hoping that his mind would shut off once he started fucking, but felt her stiffen at his aggressive approach. Doing his best to ignore it, he climbed over her small figure grazed his tongue over the open scent glands along her neck, scenting her in the process. She smelled nice, like a library, but it was nothing close to what he really wanted... _not as delicious as Oikawa._  As he continued his endeavor, he found himself quickly losing interest in the girl-- as if he truly had any to begin with. His thoughts were too focused on his musings, wondering what the Oikawa smelled like when he was being fucked. 

As he moved his aching cock to the entrance of her sex, his basic instincts began to screech around in his head--  _fuck, own , dominate._  He didn't even attempt to prepare her with his fingers, he was too eager to get the ordeal over with. When he lined up for penetration, a small sob escaped from the petite mouse and her fearful scent quickly poisoned the air of the small room. At the unpleasant smell, Hajime froze, and a sudden, overwhelming feeling of shame washed through his chest-- housing itself within his beating heart.

 _The girl wasn't going to enjoy it. She was terrified._ It was something that Hajime had never cared about in his life before that very moment.

Mental images flooded his brain-- Nishinoya's bruised face-- Suga, unconscious and damaged on the pavement-- Oikawa, stiff and ready to defend himself against Daichi. He shuddered against the delicate back of the mouse-like Omega beneath him, then fell back on his knees.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't follow through no matter how hard he tried. The whole ordeal felt so wrong now, now that he personally knew Omegas. Now that he knew, first hand, about the difficulties they faced.

Conceding to his conscious, Hajime sluggishly rose to his feet and sighed, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Get up and put your clothes on," he said with quiet exasperation as he snatched his jeans from the cold floor.

The tiny mouse turned to face him and flashed him a look of confusion, wriggling her ass to question his actions. He adverted his gaze and reached forward to gingerly pull her to her feet, ignoring the inviting smell of her sex. Her grabbed her white, chiffon blouse and pulled it over her head as she looked up at him with doe-like eyes.

"Stop looking at me like that," he grumbled and she flinched, tearing away her gaze in a hurry.

He grabbed her matching white skirt, feeling guilty for scaring her, and pulled it up her slender waist. 

_What was he going to do with her...now that he wasn't going to fuck her...he could just leave...she was there of her own volition..._

He remained silent for a few moments in contemplation, then grabbed the Omega's quivering hand. "Do not let go. Do not make eye contact with anyone. Just...just look down at your feet okay?"

The small girl nodded in compliance and he led her out of the pink room and down the marble stairs, growling at every Alpha that made a pass. He did his best to project a calm fragrance, as per Oikawa's instructions, to calm the upset girl, but the air around them was too concentrated for it to have any decent effect.

As the pair set foot on the main level, he raked his gaze over the club to locate his teammates-- happy to see that they were fully distracted by the blonde barkeep.  _Good,_  he thought to himself with a sigh of relief,  _he didn't need them questioning his actions. He wouldn't be able to come up with a decent excuse._

"Oi, buddaaaaaaay, You done with her?!" A familiar black haired Alpha yelled, stepping between the unusual pair and the club's exit.

"Yeah," Hajime replied, leaking dominance from every square inch of his skin. "I'm done."

"Woah man," the Alpha said, reacting to his domineering stance. "You gonna share the Omega ass or are you going to mate the skank?"

"We are leaving, move out of my way."

"And here I gave her to you out of the kindness of my heart."

"Move."

"Why should I? Sharing is caring, that's the rule around here. Everyone knows that."

"I said move, or I'll bash your fucking face in. Believe me, you won't stand a chance."

The Alpha scoffed, then moved out of the way, shoulders bristling at Hajime's challenging scent. "I'd watch your back around these parts, man. We don't like Alpha's that don't know how to share," he threatened with his own growl, but Hajime didn't care.

He already knew that he wouldn't be coming back.


	5. New Experiences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reminder that there are probably spelling mistakes, and that the stuff I am posting is second draft-esque...so it definitely could be better if I was more patient. BUT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! 
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> Also, **Trigger warning, just in case!**
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Five: New Experiences**

**Hajime~**

Hajime gently pulled the small Omega outside the arched exit of the club, keeping her small form close to his own for her protection. Zigzagging down the block, the pair weaved through the crowds of intoxicated young adults until at last he was confident that they were alone.

He sat the girl on a wooden bench on the outskirts of a community park and adjusted the white blouse against her narrow shoulders. "Are you okay?" He asked, surprising himself with the genuine care behind his gruff words. When the timid girl remained silent, he knelt down on the damp grass and leaned in close to her slumped form. "Are you _okay?"_ He questioned again, more sternly this time, willing a response of of the silent mouse.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why didn't you fuck me?"

Hajime was taken aback by the vulgar question-- he didn't think she was even capable of swearing, not with her innocent looks.

"What do you mean...?"

"Am I not good enough? Did I displease you?" The Omega asked mechanically, looking at him with dark, tired eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"

Hajime felt a red anger pool into the depths of his stomach at the dissociated words--  _how had her self worth dropped this low? Were Omegas always this...defeated?_ He wracked his mind, searching through his memories for any of his past interactions with Omegas, but found nothing. A genuine self-hatred grew out from his absent thoughts, twisting into a knot deep inside his gut-- the thoughts were absent because he had no memories of Omega conversations. Nothing at all before the flock.

"Don't talk about yourself like that, it's not right," he stated plainly, eyeing her down with an unyielding stare. _It wasn't right...it wasn't right._

"Was I not good enough?"

"I said, stop talking about yourself like that. You're worth more than that."

"But-"

"Why were you there in the first place? What the fuck were you even doing? If you wanted to go out, go to an Omega club. I know there's not a lot of them, but they exist. Don't be stupid and go to an Alpha filled one," he interrupted, changing tactics. He needed her to talk about something, _anything_ other than the two of them sleeping together. The thought of having relations with her was making him suddenly uncomfortable in his own skin.

"I was...well...we needed some money. I don't _enjoy_ going to Alpha clubs. It's not exactly my favorite pastime..."

"What."

The small girl flinched at his harsh tone and he inwardly cursed himself. He wasn't reprimanding her for speaking so plainly about Alpha clubs, he was upset that she was there to sell herself. In fact, there hadn't been a single word out of her mouth since they had arrived in that park that _didn't_ irk him-- and then there was the added pressure of figuring out what to do with her in general. If Oikawa or Suga were around, they would have already solved the problem, and they would certainly know what to say to make her feel better about herself... _to raise her self-esteem._ Daichi or Asahi would be better had handling the situation than him as well, or even Tobio-- as far as he knew, the stern Alpha had a distaste for the club life.

"My nest...we needed some money for food this month," the slender girl whispered, answering the question that he wished he had never asked.

"Where's your nest?"

"In the Residence District. Not too far from here, I guess."

"Doesn't the University provide a monthly stipend? Why are you outside, _selling_ yourself? I don't understand."

"Yes, they do..." The small Omega began, her gaze shifting down to her small hands, folded in her lap. "But, sometimes, it's not enough to feed all of us. Our nest has gotten pretty large the past few months and the University is slow to update our household funds...and businesses aren't exactly lining up to hire us, y'know..."

At that admission, Hajime decided that he was _done_ with the entire conversation. If he took another hit of anger, he would need to find a wall, or a face, to throw his fist into. "I'm taking you home. Let's go," he barked, rising back up to his full height. "Let's go."

"You can't!" The mouse piped up, louder than he had expected she was able. "I've barely made anything...I _can't_ go back. I'll be fine, don't worry about me..."

 _Oh, he seriously doubted that._  A cold and bitter feeling began to swell in his chest at the thought of abandoning her there-- _no way he was going to let the intoxicated girl go back into the club, not one that was chalk full of aggressive Alphas._  

"How much did you make?" He asked, really not wanting to know the answer. "Tonight, how much did you make?"

"Fifty-two dollars, or something like that...I'm not sure, I'm kind of...having trouble thinking straight right now..."

"How much do you need?"

The small girl looked up at him and flashed a look of hesitation, unsure of his motives. "We budgeted this month...we think we can get by on around a hundred...but I don't know..." She conceded after a few moments of contemplation, finally allowing him some small measure of trust that he didn't deserve.

He sighed and rolled his tense shoulders, reaching for his wallet embedded in the front pocket of his black jeans. He had withdrawn plenty more than that for his evening of drinking, but luckily, the _selfless_ , attention seeking Bokuto had insisted on paying for everything. He roughly emptied the wallet's contents and shoved it into the Omega's trembling hands.

"I can't take this..." She whispered, looking down at the crumpled bills with doe-like eyes. "This is yours..."

"No, it's _yours_ and if you don't take it, I swear to god that I'll bite you," Hajime joked with a snap of his teeth, attempting to lighten the dark mood of their conversation. He had no desire to continue the depressing line of conversation-- he wanted to get her home, then crawl into his bed and somehow make sense of his own complicated life. When the mouse slightly smiled at his statement, he internally cheered his victory. "Come on, I'm walking you home. I don't want you to get robbed now that you're rich."

In reality, being robbed was the _least_ of his concerns, and they both knew it. The Omega was seeping an overbearing sexual fragrance, which he was _very_ actively ignoring, _and_ she was intoxicated-- a factor that made her even more vulnerable... _if that was even possible._  There was not much in the way of Omega protection at such a late hour, especially on an Alpha filled campus. With all of his new knowledge of Omega affairs, he knew that he had a responsibility to step in and ensure her safety, even if he was not quite sure of his personal desire for doing so.

As pair walked side by side past the dark parks and shadowed houses of the residence district, he noticed the Omega houses were smaller, and definitely poorly made in comparison to their Alpha counterparts-- a mental note he would not soon forget.

"This is it," the young girl quietly announced as she stopped in front of a blue bungalow with an expansive, well kept lawn. It beautifully planted with rose bushes and yellow snapdragons, starkly contrasting the degraded white shutters and broken porch railing, harshly illuminated by the moonlight. As the Omega began to walk towards the house, he found himself following-- his abnormally protective instincts commanding him to ensure her safety to the very end of their journey.

"Maya!" A shrill voice called out through the dark air, stalling him in his tracks, half way up the front walkway. He looked up to the source of the sound and noticed a slender figure, standing resolute on the rickety porch. A sickly scent of fear radiated out from them, souring the humid night air-- notifying him that the figure was, indeed, an Omega.

The mouse-like girl at his side made a wobbly run for the porch and embraced the unknown Omega... _a woman_ \-- if his eyes were not mistaken. The single light from inside the house illuminated the two girls enough for him to confirm that his unwitting companion, _Maya's_ nestmate was a tall, slender, woman with a long cascade of blonde hair.

"Who are you?" The shadowy figure call out to him with a high pitched, stern voice, doing well to hide her fear from her words.

Hajime did his best to exude a calm and neutral scent, _anything_ to show the woman that he meant no harm. "I just wanted to get, uh, Maya home safely. I don't want to come in. I promise, I'll, uh, stay out here, on the lawn."

"Maya, go inside," he heard the slender Omega whisper, shuffling the small girl into the broken house.

After shutting the front door with great trouble, the wood was heavily splintered and prevented it from shutting cleanly in its frame, the blonde woman took a few steps forward, allowing the Hajime to fully take in her features. He pushed down his urge to inhale her scent, remembering Suga's lecture on taboo actions. Instead, he took in her figure with his eyes-- she was indeed beautiful, tall and busty, but not overly so. If she had been born into a wealthy family, she would have been an Omega model. If she had been born into a poor family, she would have probably landed in porn. _Ah, society,_ Hajime thought to himself with indignation, _it really was as warped as his new Omega housemates claimed it to be._

"Seriously, I mean _no_ harm," he stated calmly, lifting his hands out in front of him as she approached him with cautious steps.

"You walked her home," the Omega clapped back, eyeing him with an intense suspicion. "Why?"

"I, uh, I just wanted to make sure she was safe. Seriously, that's all."

"What?"

_Yeah, he was stumped about it too._

"I don't know, stop hassling me about it okay? I _seriously_ don't know why I did it. But I've done my good deed of the day, alright?" After a momentary pause, he couldn't suppress his angry curiosity from bursting forward. "Why did you send her out there anyways? She's so fucking small, and young. What were you thinking? It's fucking dangerous for her to be out this late...especially at an Alpha club."

The slender Omega flinched at his forward remark, but soon found her own anger at his hot presumptions. "Aren't you a _curious_ one, Alpha boy. We take turns doing this shit. And it's not like I _want_ this for my nest! You think I like watching my baby birds go out to these Alpha clubs?! I stay up at night thinking about the awful things that are happening to them, praying that they come back alive, or at the very least, without broken bones."

"But-"

"I normally do it myself, okay? But the flock insisted that we start taking turns after what happened last time...they said I was burning out. And it's just until the University processes our submission for more funds...though they're taking their sweet time with it, I'll tell you that," she continued her vicious monologue, granting Hajime with more information that he didn't want to have.

 _He fucked Omegas. That was all. He didn't need this shit. He didn't need to start caring about their status. He already had enough on his plate with his own family._ He raked his dark gaze over her figure once more, noticing old, yellow bruises along her throat and arms-- and a few bite marks, some newer than others. At the sight of them, his instincts kicked into overdrive, against his willing consent--reacting to his subconscious feelings of doubt and sympathy. 

_Who did that to her? WHO did that to her?! What monster...had people touched...Oikawa…Suga...his pack...had...Oikawa...been...hurt like this?!_

"You're... _different_..." The Omega stated, hesitation in her narrowed eyes, but she visibly relaxed into his abundant protective scent. "You're a dominant Alpha, too. Normally your type is the most troublesome for us...how strange."

 _She was absolutely right_. Hajime felt another oceanic wave of guilt rush over him at her honest words. He had been _exactly_ the Alpha she was describing-- fucking drugged up Omegas on his nights out, sometimes throwing them a couple of bucks for their compliance. The more his past actions permeated his mind, the more disgusted with himself he became. Bokuto and Tanaka had frequently joined in his endeavors, tonight being no exception, and even Daichi was known to dabble every once in a while.  _Was it all wrong...?_  He already knew the answer. It was there waiting, down in the deepest recesses of his gut, eager to answer him. His new Omega housemates had been both a blessing and a curse. The information and experiences they had granted him...there was no way he could fuck his way back to his old ways. Not with everything he had seen, not after his rose tinted glasses had been torn from his face.

"I'm... _trying_ to be different," he said quietly, startling himself with the intense determination behind his words. "Hey...can I ask you something?"

"I suppose," the slender woman replied, maintaining her distance, but softening the hard lines of her face at his honest curiosity.

"How much are you normally short, in food money, or textbook money...whatever you wanna call it."

"Maya told you."

"I kind of pried it out of her," he said apologetically, anxiously shuffling on his feet under her intense gaze. "I gave her money."

In an instant, the slender Omega's scent snapped out, whirling around with blown out hostility.

"I didn't fu- I didn't sleep with her!" Hajime quickly interjected, knowing that the source of her upset was her suspicion over his motives. "Well, if I'm being honest, I _almost_ did, but I stopped. I swear to god. I stopped. Nothing happened between us. At all."

"But, you _wanted_ to fuck her. You _wanted_ to get your share."

Hajime sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, I did. But I'm…" He paused, contemplating how to vocalize the thoughts that had been terrorizing him since meeting Oikawa. "I'm dealing with some...things. A flock moved into our residence a few weeks ago and I've...started to notice how poorly...Omegas are treated."

"Typical Alpha," the woman said, rolling her eyes in the dim light. "I guess I shouldn't give you _too_ much of a hard time, though. You _are_ putting up some Omegas, against University guidelines. That's noble, if you're telling me the truth, that is."

Hajime let out another exasperated sigh. He certainly didn't _feel_ noble. He had gone out to the club that night with terrible intentions. Something about the slender woman made him want to confess his thoughts...and his sins.

"Oh, Alpha. You _must_ be telling the truth, you look so pained and tormented by your thoughts. Let me guess," the dark haired Omega drawled, crossing her arms over her ample bust. "You _like_ one of these Omegas that moved in with you, don't you."

"How did you-"

"I can smell it on you. Hesitation...and confusion. The type you only see on someone who is undergoing a period of rapid change. Someone whose morals have been tested."

 _Were Omega' s fucking mind readers?_   _Jesus christ,_ he thought with wide eyes, _she was spot on._ He had _never_ heard of anything about Omega mind reading through scents. It was absurd, and he certainly didn't like the prospect of it. 

"We _don't_ read minds," the slender woman put forth, contradicting her words by once again reading his thoughts. "We just...can guess what a certain scent means, if we have enough background information. You told me that you have new Omega roommates, that you went out clubbing, that you tried, but failed, to fuck Maya. Then you brought her home unharmed and gave her money. With _all_ that information, it's pretty easy to deduce what your scent means."

"Oh…" Hajime sheepishly replied, glancing up at the star speckled sky to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

The Omega let out a musical laugh at his expense, then shuffled her stance on the hard pavement. "Look, something about this Omega's scent obviously has you in a tizzy, that's very obvious."

"I...I _know_ that. I just don't know what to do about it," Hajime replied with a huff of frustration, returning the woman's knowing gaze. "I'm not...a _good_ person. If anything is clear after today, that's it."

"You're not?"

"No."

"Well, a _bad_ person wouldn't have protected Maya in the club, walked her home, and expected nothing in return. Am I wrong?"

_She wasn't wrong, but one simple act of kindness would not make up for a lifetime of indiscretions..._

"It's a start, though, isn't it?" The Omega chirped, reading his scent again. "And, by the way, I know you took in Suga and his flock. They Omega residence distinct isn't exactly large. News travels pretty fast around here."

"Oh, yeah, we did," Hajime started, slightly wriggling his nose at her ability to toy with his mind. "They're good people..."

"Yes, they are good _people."_

"Hey, you have a phone?"

"I do…we live in the twenty first century, Alpha boy."

"What's your number?"

"Why?"

"Because, I'm going to make sure your flock doesn't have to do this shit anymore," Hajime growled, clenching his fists in irritation. "You know, go to clubs. At least, until the University gets their _shit_ together and starts transferring you guys the right amount of money."

He came from a wealthy background and he was more than willing, _no_ , he _wanted_  to donate to this nest. The Omega stepped forward, gently pulling out her phone, her movements subconscious-- shell shocked by his abrupt statement. A fragrance of sweet apples radiated off of her moonlit skin and, for the first time since meeting Oikawa, he allowed himself to wish that she smelled of the ocean instead.

After they had exchanged numbers, he stepped back and pocketed his phone. "I gave her, Maya, around a hundred bucks. Is that going to be enough this month? I can wire you more."

The slender Omega giggled, heavily scenting the air with a tart smelling joy. "You are a true miracle, Alpha boy. That is more than enough. We owe you a debt."

Hajime blushed- _blushed?_   _Stop that!_

"Uh-okay good," he stuttered, taking note of the run-down house once more. "And I'm going to come over tomorrow, if you'll have me. Your porch needs to be fixed...among other things," he finished, scrunching up his nose at the poor state of the house. "Is that okay?"

The Omega let out another musical laugh and nodded her head. "My, my, you are _full_ of surprises...I don't even know your name...?"

"Uh, it's Hajime."

"I'm Eiko."

"Right…" He replied, suddenly feeling very worn out-- the evening had not gone as he had planned. Not at all. "Well, have a good night then. I suppose I'll see you tomorrow. I'll fire you a text."

"Thank you. And until then, Hajime," Eiko softly announced, bowing low to show her respect.

"Don't mention it," he responded, doing his best not to stutter in surprise at her abrupt action. 

As he walked towards the sidewalk, he realized that everything he had promised to Eiko, was done out of an honest place in his heart. However, he still didn't want his teammates, or Oikawa, to find out about his plans. _Not yet._ It would just add fuel to his already complex fire-- he was struggling to keep it in check as it was.

When he began his walk towards the Alpha section of the district, something caught his eye-- the ruins of a burnt house. He mosied towards it, not caring that it was the opposite direction of his home. Standing in front of the wreckage, he was pelted with pang after pang of vengeful fury.  _Protect. Protect. Protect. Protect._ His instincts clamored forward, rattling against his skull as his aggressive scent spread throughout the area, penetrating the clear, night air. He wasn't sure how long he stood there for, the only thing that he knew for certain was that he was _never_ going to allow _his_  Omegas to be hurt again. _Not while he was still breathing._

**Daichi~**

_Fifteen days._ It had been fifteen days since his Alpha house became overrun with Omegas, and Daichi had come to welcome the change. He yawned deeply, then smiled when Suga curled up next to him underneath the sheets. He glanced at the white walls of his room, feeling more content than he ever had in his life.  _Perhaps,_   _Suga could paint some things to jazz up the place?_  He wanted the silver haired boy to be more comfortable sleeping in his room or, more accurately, hoped the silver haired boy would feel comfortable enough to _continue_ sleeping there.

His second night with the Omega had been better than the first-- Oikawa had given him a lengthy tutorial on how to handle Suga's night terrors, so he felt better equipped. Although, he _did_ succumb to a brief fit of Alpha rage when the chestnut boy explained that night terrors were a daily common occurrence among Omegas. The pieces had been fairly easy for him to connect. The world did nothing but punch down at Omegas, forcing trauma upon them, so the nervous ticks and mental illnesses the class experienced were no surprise to him anymore. He hated the grand realization with every fiber of his being.

A few hours earlier, Suga had woken with an abrupt start, crying and rocking. To untrained eyes, he seemed to be awake in his panic, but Daichi knew better now. He emulated Oikawa's technique, albeit with his own Alpha twist. He gathered the Omega in his arms and rocked, asserting that the Omega was safe in his arms while heavily scenting him with a blanket of protection. After an hour or so, Suga relaxed back into a deep slumber and Daichi was at long last able to relax back into his sweet fragrance.

"Mmmm," Suga murmured, stirring against his broad chest.

Butterflies skittered across his stomach as the Omega's scent began to pool around him-- slowly waking from its unconscious hibernation. "Morning," he whispered, smiling up at the ceiling. As the silver boy shifted against his torso, ass rubbing up against his crotch. He willed his knot to stay away.

Suga hummed himself awake, then rose up in a hurry, startling him with the abrupt movement. "Oh god, _please_ tell me that I didn't keep you awake all night again..."

"Only for an hour. And I don't mind, Suga, really," he replied and the silver boy groaned into his delicate hands, upset with his unconscious actions. "Don't," he continued, pulling the Omega into his lap to happily scent him along his neck. "I honestly don't care."

"But I-"

"Don't," he interjected, squeezing Suga tighter. "You were sexually assaulted...almost  _raped..._ " His final word pouring out in a vicious snarl. He couldn't help it from escaping his throat, the thought of the event made his blood boil and provoked his instincts from their passive state.

"I know..." Suga affirmed, purring as he rubbed his silver locks against Daichi's scent glands. "But, I'm still mad, I wasn't strong enough to-"

"I. Will. Not. Allow. Anyone. To. Touch. You. Again."

The words spilled out of Daichi's rumbling throat alongside a blanketing protective scent, his eyes flickering between their natural state and feral darkness. Suga shifted in his lap and purred louder, the content sound doing well to shove back his instincts. Slowly, his anger subsided, only to be replaced by another feeling which required even greater attention-- his sudden desire to fuck the silver boy. He fought back with all his might, not wanting to push Suga any more than he already had. It would be irresponsible, cruel, even.

"I need to go check on Yachi," Suga whispered into his ear, sending icy chills down his spine. "She probably needs something to eat."

"Five minutes," he mumbled back into the Omega's silver hair, inhaling the delicious fragrance embedded in the locks.  _Apple pie...chocolate chip cookies...home._

Suga playfully struggled against him, flicking his in the temple with a slender finger. "You're turning us into Asahi and Nishinoya!"

"I get it now," Daichi mumbled with a small nod, squeezing the struggling boy tighter. "Asahi is a wise man. Wise beyond his years."

"You're _so_ dramatic~~" the Omega chirped back as, huffing out in frustration. 

"One condition."

"Oh? What is it?"

"I need to check over your injuries."

"You licked them all day yesterday! I barely left the room," Suga responded with an exasperated sigh, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, I did. And I'm going to lick them today too. And tomorrow. And the next day."

It wasn't something he _wanted_ , it was something he _needed_. He _needed_ to ensure that the wounds were healing and he _needed_ to lick them to ensure that it happened faster.

"Fineeee, but I'm not going to stay as your captive again today. It's Sunday. I have things to do, you know."

"Okay," Daichi conceded, beginning his search over the Omega's pale body-- searching for damage. "I won't hassle you...that much."

"I will believe that when I see it~~"

*******

Daichi walked down the oak stairs and into the small entryway, dark eyes grazing over the confines of the main floor. _Pretty quiet for a Sunday,_  he thought to himself with a smirk, happy to see his housemates mingling so naturally. Yamaguchi and Oikawa were studying in the dining room, the latter hitting the former with a book for every wrong answer. Kenma and Kuroo were _still_ barricaded in their room, doing their usual Sunday routine of nesting and fucking. Suga had gone to nest with Yachi, and Hinata was bounding around a very tired looking Keiji in the backyard.

"All the Alphas, aside from me and Hajime, are watching the basketball game on campus!" He heard Asahi call to him, reading his internal thoughts, from his position on the turquoise coach. A very impatient Nishinoya was being scented in the giant's lap, loudly complaining at the affair.

Daichi could tell by scent that the pair had yet to sleep together. _However,_ he pondered with a light sniff of the air, _Asahi definitely was craving it._

When a large hand settled on his shoulder, his humorous thoughts were stalled, and he whipped around to find Hajime-- his disposition unusually tired... _and emotional...?_

"Hey, Daichi. Can I talk to you for a sec?" Hajime asked quietly, refusing to make eye contact. "It's important."

"Yeah...sure," Daichi replied with furrowed brows, he had _never_ seen his snarky teammate so... _off_ before-- Hajime was known for his emotional control, including over his instincts.

"Out front."

He followed the dark Alpha out onto the front porch and sat down on the wooden stairs beside him. He was happy for the morning sun, it warmed his body-- unusually frigid without Suga.

"What's up?" He asked, growing increasingly perplexed by Hajime's unusual scent. _Confusion...upset...rage_ , all readily available for him to smell, it was freakishly unusual. 

"Something happened last night. I need, well, I could use a hand with some stuff."

Daichi was gobsmacked, but he didn't let it show on his face-- he wanted to know everything going on inside Hajime's complex mind. It was a rare occurrence for him to ask for help and Daichi had no desire to scare him off before finding out the source of his upset. 

"Sure, anything," Daichi asserted with a strong nod. "Hit me with it."

He listened intently to Hajime's story, his shock growing with each passing remark, from beginning to end. He couldn't help but give off a scent of pride at the recount-- the paternal fragrance making Hajime outwardly uncomfortable.

"We could fix up the house faster, and better, if we bring Asahi into this," he said plainly after the absurd tale had been concluded.

"I don't want too many people knowing," Hajime drawled out with a frustrated sigh, rubbing the back of his neck to alleviate stress. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Hey man, it's Asahi, the biggest Omega fan in this house," Daichi replied with a chuckle, pleasantly surprised at Hajime's willingness to trust his judgement.

" _You_ also fit into that category," his friend quipped back, but he didn't mind the subtle stab. He loved...he _loved_ Suga, and by extension _,_ he loved the entire flock _._

He waited patiently in the silence as Hajime contemplated the situation, knowing that it would be unwise of him to push the snarky Alpha into a decision.  _If he was going to change his ways, he would have to do so on his own terms._

"Fine," Hajime said with a heavy sigh after a few minutes. "We can bring in Asahi, but the Omegas _can't_ know. I'm not...ready for that, yet. Okay?"

"Asahi is going to tell Nishinoya," Daichi put forth, smiling at their growing relationship. "But I'm pretty sure the kid can keep his lips sealed."

"Yeah, I guess that's fine..."

He wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from Suga, but he left that part out. He was more than certain that there was only _one_ person Hajime desired to keep out of the loop-- Oikawa. He had noticed Hajime's frustrated scent from a few days now, a scent that immensely increased after his intervention in the night terror affair. He was certain that the stern Alpha was innately drawn to Oikawa, much like he was with Suga, even if the latter didn't know it quite yet.

Hajime threw his head back, exasperated with the unknown, complex situation that was rattling off inside his mind. "Fine!" He growled, rolling his eyes up at the awning above them. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

Daichi smiled at his friend's irritation. _Things were changing...for the better. He had the Omegas to thank for it._

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa stood in the kitchen, brows furrowed at the pathetic contents of the fridge. After a few moments, he threw his head back in frustration and yelled, to no one in particular, "ahhhhhhgg, food doesn't even last a day in this house~~"

Glancing down at his watch he was happy to find that it was still relatively early-- 3:05 pm, plenty of time to raid the University's General Store. Waltzing out the kitchen, he took note of the people currently at the house. _Not a single Alpha, except that horny rooster haired one, but he had been barricaded in his room with his mate since the morning._  Most of the Alphas were on campus at the victory party for the basketball team, and Daichi, Asahi, and Hajime had gone on some _secret_ errand. _Whatever that meant,_ he thought with a huff of frustration, _he wanted to know what the sneaky boys were up to..._

"Hey, Shoyo. Wanna come to the store with me?" He called out the back door at the energetic ball of fire, fumbling around in the grass. "Invitation is for you too, Keiji."

"I have to study for a Latin literature test tomorrow, so I'm a hard no," Keiji lazily responded from his seat on the back porch, not even bothering to break his gaze from the textbook in his small lap.

"Can we jog?!" Shoyo questioned, eyeing Oikawa with his _exhausting_ , prying eyes.

"No."

"Lameeeeeee," the ginger replied, obviously disheartened by Oikawa's rejection. "I guess walking is still exercise..."

"Fabulous, grab your spray."

"Yes sir," Shoyo saluted, running past Oikawa into the yellow house. "It's already by the door!"

Oikawa wandered up the stairs, passing the energetic Omega, chatting anxiously with Yamaguchi, to grab his own spray. As he opened the door to their nest, he happily inhaled its calming scent.  _He loved it._ The room was large, the wall opposite the door entirely made of windows, allowing the room to bask in natural light. The soft, tea green walls exhibited a relaxing energy for its inhabitants and most of the floor was a mess of blankets, comforters, and pillows. He and his nestmates preferred to sleep in a messy pile of snuggles- _solo slumbers didn't work so well for them._

"Hey Oikawa!" Suga called from his position beside what Oikawa assumed was Yachi, piled in beneath a slew of comforters.

"Have you guys seen my spray? Even though I _love_ our nest, it's always so hard to find things in here~~"

"You're going out?" Suga interrupted in a worried tone, likely heightened by what had happened to him this past week. Nonetheless, his strong friend refused to allow his scent to show his upset-- unwilling to let Yachi catch wind of his stress.

"Shoyo and I are going to the General Store, there's nothing to eat around here."

"Spray?"

"Look who you're talking to Suga, come on. I'm your second in command~~"

"I know, just making sure. Let's talk outside," Suga replied, whispering something to Yachi before following Oikawa out of the room.

"Don't be so worried," Oikawa remarked as the silver Omega closed the door softly behind them. "We'll be fine."

"Yeah...here's your spray," the Suga purred, handing him a silver bottle. "But, seriously. Please be careful. Weekends are dangerous to leave the house. There are no University security guards like there are on weekdays and-"

"Because they always jump to help Omegas," Oikawa interrupted with a musical laugh. "Come on, Suga, you and I have both seen them turn a blind eye every now and then."

"I know, but the percentage of attacks is significantly lower on school days."

"Well, it's not even late and Alphas are less likely to attack when there's more than one Omega. Probably scared of the spray, I hear it's rather unpleasant~~"

"What time will you be back?" Suga asked, looking at his brown wrist watch.

"Two hours. Let's say, 5:30 pm," he replied, looking at his own in accordance. "And both Shoyo and I have our phones, our patches are on, and I made sure that he has his spray. So don't worry," he quickly rattled off before the silver boy had the chance to initiate another lecture.

"Okay. Oh! Could you get Yachi some chocolate? I'm hoping it will cheer her up."

"You got it, sugar momma~~" Oikawa called over his shoulder as he waltzed cheerfully down the stairs.

*******

"Hey, Oikawa. Do you think we could get our hands on a trampoline!?" Shoyo asked with great vigor, jumping up and down on the pavement beside him.

"Do you ever run out of energy? Its exhausting," Oikawa drawled out with irritation, the ginger's energy didn't seem to have an off button. _It was so tiresome...but he did welcome it...most of the time._

"That's not an answer!"

"I don't know! Where do you even get a trampoline?"

"The trampoline store," Shoyo whistled as they rounded the corner of the Cultural Building. "Obviously!"

 _Finally_ , _they were getting close to the store. What a long walk_ , he thought to himself as they started forward on the last block.

"Oh my goooooooooood," he whined, throwing his head back dramatically. "We're going to have so many bags to carry baaaaack~~"

"Y'know, sometimes, you're really pathetic, Oikawa," Shoyo quipped, sticking out a pink tongue.

Oikawa stiffened at the cheeky remark before ruffling, none too playfully, the Omega's ginger hair.

"You little shit!"

**Hajime~**

Hajime walked alongside Asahi and Daichi as they made their way back from Eiko's rundown home. While their presence had stressed the most of the nest, the Omegas eventually relaxed, albeit, after a few hours-- Much to the Alphas relief, the sour scent of fear was _truly_ an aggravating fragrance. The three teammates had repainted the shutters and fixed the broken railing of the porch, but there was so much more to be done. Around back there were broken windows, the roof was falling apart, causing rainy day leaks, and the front door was so splintered that it had to be kicked open. The whole ordeal frustrated Hajime and he could tell that his teammates were just as irritated at seeing the harsh reality of the University residence district.

"I can't believe you actually have a heart," Daichi chirped, poking him playfully in the ribs. "Seriously, my my is blown."

"Even I have to admit my surprise," Asahi chimed in with a snicker. "I didn't think you had emotions."

"Shut it," Hajime stated flatly-- _it was just as much of a shock to him, too_. "Fuck, there's still so much to be done..."

"Yeah…" Daichi murmured and Asahi nodded in agreement. "I never knew it was this bad. I mean, we're on campus! You'd think that there would be equal grounds for both classes...it's _ridiculous_ ," he finished with an aggravated huff, his throat rumbling with discontent.  

They continued their venting until they rounded the corner to their isolated house, peacefully situated at the end of a cul de sac park. Upon entering comforting yellow building, they were greeted by a lazy Nishinoya, intently watching game show television, and the studious Yamaguchi and Keji in the dining room. A sleepy instinct stirred within Hajime when he sifted through the familiar scents, searching for one that smelled of the ocean. It was not long before it shifted to near panic, confirming that the chestnut Omega was absent from the property. He did not let his upset escape his thoughts, not wanting anyone to pry into feeling that he himself had yet to understand. 

Asahi lunched for the couch, not bothering to take off his muddy boots, and tackled into Nishinoya to happily scent him.

"OI, why do you smell like-" the small Omega began, but Asahi pulled the boy into his shirt to muffle his words.

"Shh, I'll tell you later."

Hajime shifted his attention to Daichi, _stupidly_ beaming beside him as he gazed up at Suga, walking down the stairs with Omega-like grace. As the silver boy approached, the lines of his pale face contorted, perplexed and questioning the unknown Omega fragrances on the captain. 

"I'll tell you tonight," Daichi affirmed and Suga smiled-- the simple response was enough to sate his curiosity, and the two waltzed into the blue kitchen, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

Hajime made his way over to the television, irritated that Asahi and Nishinoya were taking up the entire couch. He hesitantly plopped down on the perpetually uncomfortable red armchair, searching for a distraction that could drown out his frantic thoughts.  _Where was Oikawa?_  He  _hated_ not knowing where the chestnut Omega was-- _he hated that he hated not knowing where the chestnut Omega was._  However, neither frustration was enough to have him vocalizing his disconnect. Instead, he willed himself to calm down, but the seeping feeling of panic remained, growing larger and more fearful with each passing second. 


	6. Forced Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***BIG Trigger Warning***
> 
> ^Sometimes, you gotta be cruel to your characters to world build :(
> 
> Also, please understand that I do not condone these actions, it is simply being used to drive the story to where I want it to go (i.e changing a corrupt system/finding love amongst a loooot of hate). So, read with caution, kiddies!
> 
> Again, there are probably grammatical issues. Sorry!
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Six: Forced Together**

**Oikawa~**

"Shoyo, don't drop the bags~~" Oikawa chastised the energetic ball walking a few feet ahead of him, already feeling drained from the intense scent he was releasing.

"I obviously won't!" Shoyo retorted back over his shoulder and flashed a coy smirk that made Oikawa want to smack the kid.

As they continued their route, past the Cultural Building, shooting happy chirps at each other under the setting sun, Oikawa shook his wrist to align the watch strap and checked its glass face-- _7:15, they were right on time._

Shoyo stopped in his tracks, distracted by the lush scenery on their left, then began a mindless jog, bags in hand, into the park.

"Oikawaaaaaaa, let's go this way! It smells so nice and it's a shortcut!" He called over his shoulder, flashing a wicked smirk that was brimming with Shoyo-like curiosity.

Oikawa glanced ahead at his nestmate and sighed slightly as the boy sprinted further into the expansive greenery on their left. Jogging begrudgingly forward, Oikawa shifted his plastic grocery bags to one hand and shouted in Shoyo's direction.

"No shortcuts! Haven't you learned anything from Suga? It's one of the first rules of being an Omega!"

"That's more like, the twenty-first rule! There are too many to keep track of!" The ginger called back across the grass, its emerald blades shifting in the cool, evening breeze.

"Get back over here~~ We're taking the normal route!"

Shoyo visibly huffed at Oikawa's command, then began a sluggish walk back towards the pavement, grumbling under his breath.

"You're so lame Oikawa. Your nickname should be Lamekawa!"

Oikawa rolled his nutmeg eyes-- _why was he cursed with such easy name to manipulate?_

He shook his head, amused, and glanced back at the park, admiring its well kept features in the golden hue of the setting sun. As he raked his gaze over the far side of the expanse, a disturbing sight drew his attention-- three,  _no_ , four Alphas were jumbled together, making their way towards Shoyo's grumpy figure. The group was still a ways off, but Oikawa moved without thinking, jogging across the grass towards his unwitting friend.

"Alphas behind you," Oikawa hissed, answering the ginger's perplexed face at his sudden movement. "Suppress your scent. Come back this way. Move calmly and slowly," he continued in command, gesturing his head towards the sidewalk that lay more than a few meters away.

They began an agonizing march back towards the pavement. _Thirty feet, twenty five, twenty,_  Oikawa counted under his breath to steadi his fraying nerves-- _so close._ When a nasty cat call shot out from behind him, his hopeful heart was shattered and the muscles in his pale face stiffened. _They must have picked up on our scent_ , he cursed under his breath-- the direction of the summer breeze had not been in their favor.

"Hey, Omegas! What are you doing so far from home? Are you lost or something? It's dangerous to wander around so late in the day, y'know!"

There were two things Oikawa learned from the Alpha's unwanted call. First, the words had been somewhat slurred-- the group was clearly intoxicated in some way or another. Second, the voice had carried slightly, so the source was around thirty feet away. 

_Perhaps they would still be able to slip away unharmed._

"Keep walking, Shoyo," he whispered and the younger Omega acknowledged, increasing his pace in kind. "Don't respond to them. Just keep calm. We've got this."

"Where are you going?" Another call rang out, this time in a tone laced with volatility.

_Keep ignoring._

"Hey, don't walk away from us, you _sluts_."

_Start jogging._

Oikawa heard the crunch of heavy footsteps close in from behind them and the pack's thirsty scent whirled into his open nostrils, against the direction of the wind.  _Not a good sign._ He and Shoyo were not going to be able to avoid a confrontation. He _had_ to do something before things came to a head. In a quick moment, he mentality ran through his options, then gently grasped Shoyo's tense forearm and whispered out a quiet command.

"Go now. Run to the house. Do. Not. Stop."

Shoyo glanced up with upset eyes and Oikawa clenched a fist around the white plastic of his grocery bags. He wanted nothing more than to drop them and run alongside his nestmate, but he knew better than anyone that the odds were stacked against them. Having Shoyo run for help held the best odds-- if they both fled, there was no doubt in his mind that they would be overtaken with no chance of help in the near future. The universe had granted Alphas with stronger agility, for the most part, but Shoyo was fast in every sense of the word-- including running. Oikawa could maintain his poise and verbally, or physically if need be, hold the Alphas off until the ginger Omega returned with help from their yellow house. It was the best plan Oikawa could come up with. The only viable option they had, he was certain of it.

"No way! I'm not leaving you!" His nestmate pleaded, furiously shaking his head from side to side. "We can take them! We'll just-"

"No. Go, now."

"No!"

Shoyo had always been a stubborn boy, but Oikawa knew what buttons to push-- he changed tactics. The Alphas were closing in and their very small range of options were going to expire soon.

"You _need_ to get help. Get Suga, or one of the Alphas. Fuck, bring all of them if you can. You're faster than I am. _Please_ , Shoyo. Trust me. This is our best option. You have to go."

Shoyo hesitated for a few more moments, then promptly dropped his grocery bags to the grass and burst into a fast sprint towards the edge of the park. Oikawa watched the boy round the corner of the block, out of his line of sight, then steadied himself and turned to face his soon to be assailants.

_He would stall for as long as possible, and when he could no longer stall, he would fight._

"Alphas~~ How may I help you on this fine evening?" He called out to the four men, now ten feet away. He was eager to get in a snarky comment to catch then off guard-- to show them that he was not afraid.

"Where's your friend going?" A blonde man yelled back in question, quickening his pace to close the gap. "He seemed like he was in a hurry! I hope we didn't scare him..."

"He has somewhere he has to be, but thank you for your _unwarranted_ concern," Oikawa chimed back through clenched teeth. He hated the instinctual feelings the Alphas were forcing out of him-- he was not a piece of meat to be claimed, he should not have a need to feel scared. He should be able to walk freely without fear no matter what hour of the day it was.

"Toooooo bad. Two is always better than one," another man called, one with blue hair whose sour scent Oikawa found to be particularly stressful-- it was raunchy and domineering with its sexual nature. 

As the four Alphas closed the distance and stopped before him, he was unhappy to find them all trumping him in both height and weight.  _Well, height and weight weren't everything,_ he thought to himself as he quickly took in their builds. Two were shorter than him, but stocky and slow... _easy to take down._ The blue haired one had a large, athletic build... _okay_ ,  _not so easy to take out._  The blonde man was also big, though not nearly as powerful looking as the blue one.. _.it wasn't a sure victory, but he could put up a good fight._

The blue haired giant was the first to step forward, much too close for his comfort. The man's aggressive scent was quick to invade his personal space and he did his best to suppress his gag reflex at the rancid taste it left on his tongue.

"You're pretty," the blue mouth breather drawled, his sexual Alpha fragrance beaming off of his pale skin to poison the evening air around them with its intent.

Oikawa snuck a quick glance at the Alpha's crotch and quickly hid his disgust at the massive bulge pushing into the tough, blue denim. He tried his best, but he was unable to completely reign in his scent and a single fragrance of terror seeped off his smooth skin before he clamped down on his fragrance with renewed vigor. He did not want to give the Alphas the satisfaction of his fear-- they seemed like the type that reveled in it.

"Thank you, what a  _generous_ compliment! Now, if you and your friends would be so kind and take a step back, then we can all be on our way," he stated clearly, adding overtones of hostility to his otherwise casual words. "I think that would be best, no? I'm sure we all have better things to do~~"

The Alphas laughed at his statement, dismissing his threat with prideful humor, before the blue one spoke again.

"But I can't fuck you from a distance, you Omega _whore_."

"You aren't going to fuck me at all," Oikawa seethed back, bristling from the vulgar statement. _Whore-_ \- the word was a pet peeve of his. He hated that Alphas loved to associate _all_ Omegas with the vulgar word. 

"Oh, really? Isn't that all your species is good for? Pretty sure that's it, right? Why else would the universe create a creature with such an appealing scent?"

This time, Oikawa took his own moment to laugh, unable to help himself at the irony.

"No. That's all  _your_ species is good for," he spat back and casually dropped his grocery bags onto the grass, preparing for a physical altercation. "You want to fuck me, I don't want to fuck you." 

"You're mouthy," the blue man chirped with a cold smirk and took a proud step forward, his Alpha lackey's following suit. The small action alterted Oikawa that he was the lead Alpha of the vile pack. Oh of  _course it was the most athletically built one_ , he thought, rolling his eyes in frustration. _Of course it was._

As if hearing his personal thoughts, the blue Alpha growled low and took another step forward.

"I don't like mouthy Omegas," he hotly remarked with a knowing smirk, his eyes darkening with predatory instinct.

Oikawa's skin crawled at the challenging tone behind the threatening words-- _he was nearly out of time._ Rather than attempt to push for more verbal banter, he decided that he might gain a slight upper hand if he was the first to take physical action. Seizing his Alpha repellent from the back pocket of his grey denim, he roundhouse kicked one of the smaller Alphas in the stomach and swiftly sprayed the man's wincing face. Then he dodged the desperate grasp of the blonde Alpha and made hard impact with the other small pack member, knee to balls, dispatching him to the ground with ease. Lurching back a few steps, Oikawa steadied himself against his two remaining opponents-- the blonde and blue men. He did a quick check to make sure the other two were out of commission and was pleased to see they most certainly were. Particularly the one he had unleashed half a bottle of Alpha spray upon-- he hoped that it hurt just as much as it appeared to. The man deserved it.

"My my, you have FIGHT!" The blue haired man exclaimed with a wry smile. "That kind of shit makes my knot hard, you know. Its hard to come by such a wily Omega, must be my lucky day."

"So vulgar," Oikawa replied with disgust, eyeing the two men intently as they paced in front of him-- stalking _weaker_ prey.

When the blonde man made a move to the right, he turned on his heels to spray, but was interrupted-- bowled over by the larger Alpha into the grass. He managed to get a few good kicks in and one puff of spray, before he was bashed in the face with a hard fist. The world around him rapidly drained of color and he fought a losing battle against his consciousness, succumbing to darkness.

**Sugawara and Others~**

Shoyo burst through the door of the yellow house, panting heavily and leaking an overbearing scent of terror. Suga was at the boy's side in mere moments, furiously checking for injuries on his shaking body.

"Not. Hurt." The ginger panted, looking up at the silver Omega with wild eyes. "Oikawa- in the park- Cultural Building- Alphas."

 _Oikawa, park, Alphas_ , was all Hajime had heard. Panic gripped his insides, twisting about and festering in the deep recesses of his gut. He clumsily lurched to his feet, bowling over the red armchair he had been seated on, and threw himself past the stunned Omegas in the entryway, out into the front street.

 _Protect. Omega. Trouble._ The words screeched inside Kuroo's skull, blasting through his conscious thoughts to overtake his sanity. Hajime's panic blanketed his own instincts, prompting him to hurriedly follow his Alpha housemate out of the house. His mate stood in the dining room, a mixture of pride and worry on his cat-like face.

Suga called over Keiji to handle the frantic Shoyo and attempted his own exit when Daichi grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Stay with Shoyo. I will find Oikawa. I _will_ protect him," the captain growled, his words choppy as instincts flared up in kind.

Suga hesitated, then nodded, putting his faith in the dark Alpha who had aided him only days earlier, and pulled Shoyo into a motherly embrace.

"It's okay! It's going to be okay. You did well Shoyo," he sang sweetly, fiddling with the ends of the boy's ginger hair as he watched Daichi sprint down the darkening block through the front window.

"I left him. I _left_ him there, Suga. There were four of them… _four_ ," Shoyo sobbed, profusely shaking in Suga's hearty embrace. "I-I had my phone. I forgot I-I h-had my phone! I could've called! I should've-"

"No, Shoyo. You did what you could. This is Oikawa we're talking about!" Suga said with as much vigor as he could muster, but his own mind was quickly clouding with worry. "I'm sure he's already kicked their asses. He's the best fighter we know. And thanks to you, our Alphas are going to go and give him some back up!" He finished, successfully hiding his fear from the ginger Omega and Yamaguchi, but not from the knowing eyes of Keiji-- listening intently from his position, leaning against the railing of the stairs.

"What's going on?" Nishinoya called, entering the house with Asahi from the back porch.

It was clear to Suga that the giant alpha had picked up on the panicked fragrance that Hajime had left behind and, perhaps, another fragrance as well. _Was it the protect the pack scent that Daichi had mentioned earlier?_

"Asahi, Oikawa is in danger. The Alphas went-" He tried to explain, but was quickly cut short by a hostile growl.

"I will remain. No other Alphas are here. Protect the home," the bunned giant snarled. He strode through the front door and onto the porch. Then, he parked himself on the steps and began a solo, watchful patrol of their home.

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa woke with an unpleasant, painful slap to the face. Through his blurry vision, he slowly took in his surroundings-- a small room, navy blue walls, and a large bed with black sheets.  _A bedroom._  He made an attempt to rise up from the hardwood floor, but found his arms tied painfully behind his back. The links of white rope dug into his wrists, cutting off circulation to his now purple hands. He shivered and felt his bare torso stick to the clean floor-- at least he still had his black jeans to cover his lower half. _His last line of defense._

"Welcome back princess!" Came a deep growl that made the his skin crawl with a frustrated terror-- if the cowards hadn't tied him up, he could show them just how much of a _princess_ he really was.

He looked up from his powerless position at the blue haired Alpha towering over him, then to blonde one, leaning against the wall on the right.

"Left your friends passed out in the park did you? How noble~~" He chirped through narrowed eyes. _If he was going to be raped, he was going to get some punches in, even verbal ones._

"I am going to wreck you," the blue Alpha snarled, shutting down the verbal stab in an instant. His scent leaked out, filling the room with a violent fragrance that made Oikawa's stomach lurch in a somersault of terrified anticipation.

"I _guess_ I'll wait my turn," the blonde one sighed before excusing himself from the room, voice laced with an irritated resignation. "Don't wreck him, Hisato. Sharing is caring."

"You do know that this is illegal. I am  _not_ consenting to _any_ of this," Oikawa seethed, twisting about on the floor, trying to release himself from his tight bonds. " _Completely_  and _utterly_ illegal."

"Consent doesn't matter when it comes to whore Omegas," the blue man,  _Hisato_ , leaned down to whisper into Oikawa's ear.

Oikawa shuddered and tried to jerk away--  _what an absolute monster._

Moments later, Hisato picked him up by the hair and pushed him against the black door with an unbent amount of force that was sure to break ribs. He struggled with everything ounce of strength he retained, but his legs were pinned against the Alpha's weight, making his efforts all but futile. 

"How cliche. An Alpha who likes it rough," he spat into Hisato's face and received a hard bite on the neck that drew blood in return.

After a few minutes of sharp teeth against his neck, Hisato dropped him harshly to the floor. He watched as the man sauntered over to a black dresser and pulled out a pair of underwear with some duct tape. O _bviously, the monster had done this before,_ he thought to himself with enmity,  _nobody has duct tape just lying around in their dresser._ His realization, that Hisato had assaulted other Omegas before him, made his blood boil with bitter fury. H _e was strong, he could survive the mental and physical scars that would be left behind from the ordeal, but other Omegas? Other people?_ Most of them were probably not as... _seasoned_ as he was when it came to rape. Most of them would have years of mental troubles from such an awful ordeal--  _people like Yachi._

"I like the occasional scream, but I don't like talking," Hisato declared as he shoved the garment into Oikawa's mouth and taped it uncomfortably in place. "You're too fucking mouthy for my tastes, though. Which is saying something. Maybe that's something you should work on!"

With both his verbal wit and body handicapped, Oikawa began to succumb to true panic. He did his best to tune out his frantic mind, as he had done in the past. His mental fortitude was his last line of defense. He had been down this route before and his sole goal, both then and now, was to live through it. _To live and see another day._

Hisato hoisted his struggling body up with ease and threw him face down onto the dark mattress. Blood seeped from the bite mark on his shoulder, dying his pale skin crimson, but he didn't feel any pain. He continued fighting and felt a sudden surge of pride when he landed a kick on his attacker's exposed face, but he was met with a hard slap, and a punch to the ribs that knocked the wind out of him. As he fought to maintain his vertigo from the strike, he felt his pants roll down his hips and his legs were forced uncomfortably apart. He couldn't regain his composure fast enough to fight against the Alpha as he clamored on top of him, biting and licking the fresh blood along his neck. Through his dazed state, Oikawa felt his strength wane from the violent foreplay, the heavy weight on top of him, and the tight ropes against his skin.

"That's it, you whore Omega. Relax. I'll make you feel _good,"_ Hisato cooed into his ear as he began to prod fat fingers into his dry sex.

He cringed at the invasion and grew wary as his scent blew out in a heavy blanket of fear that soured the musty air around him.

"You don't even need to be wet to feel good. Omegas _love_ sex," the Alpha continued, raking his nails against Oikawa's private insides. "I think your slutty hole can take my royal knot without an preparation. Don't you think? It kinda feels like you're pretty stretched out already. You're obviously an Omega that's been around."

Oikawa stiffened at the crude remark-- _he_ _had been around and it was not a fond memory for him._ He had made mistakes in his youth, but he had done his absolute best to leave his past behind him.

At that thought, he renewed his struggles as a giant cock pushed against the entrance of his exposed sex. He had been prepared for the assault to hurt, but not like this. As Hisato's member invaded his hole, inch by inch, he was certain that he was going to tear-- and the violent thrusts were not doing his dry sex any favours.  

Hisato released a carnal snarl as he rode Oikawa from behind, scratching and biting his back, coating his milky skin with crimson marks of ownership. Soon, Oikawa's mind tuned out and he was more than happy to sit back and allow it. He stopped all struggles, knowing that, by this point, they only be in vain _._ However, he maintained his mental resolve.  _He would live through this. He would survive. He always did._

**Hajime and Others~**

Hajime was at the Cultural Building in minutes, yet for him, his short travel had been an agonizing eternity. His movements felt sluggish, as if he was in a dream-- chasing after something that was just out of reach. The only thoughts rattling through his skull were instinctual. _Find Oikawa. Find my Omega. Kill those who've hurt him._ The internal commands were set on repeat, growing louder and more desperate with each passing second.

He had been pacing in front of the expansive park for less than a minute when Kuroo and Daichi joined his unwanted hunt. An unusual scent, a combination of their Alpha musks, was radiating out into the night air. None the men were out of breath, adrenaline and protective instincts making them strong and intensely decisive. Hajime welcomed their domineering fragrances, they were helping to calm his trigger happy thoughts and allowing him to think with more clarity.

"Was he here," Daichi growled low, scanning the dark park in front of them for signs of movement.

"Where is Omega," Kuroo added with his own throaty rumble.

"Smell. He was HERE," Hajime roared, more viciously than his teammates, flaring up their protective instincts once more.

He erupted into a hurried jog, following Oikawa's fearful scent into the park. The ocean fragrance was completely fused with a sickening odor of fear that made him want to vomit, but he refused to submit to it. Instead, he used it as fuel for his own vengeful rage.

As the group tracked the scent to the middle of the field, they stopped their quest at the sight of a passed out Alpha, blanketed with Oikawa's fearful fragrance. Hajime let out of furious grow and stepped forward, cringing his nose slightly at the wafting remnants of Alpha spray that were still heavy in the air. Before he could make a move, he was stopped by a large hand on his bicep.  _Daichi_.

The captain gave him a knowing gaze, then pulled the unconcious Alpha from Hajime's grip and up by the hair. He gave the man a brisk, hard punch across the face, successfully stirring him from his slumber.

"Where is the Omega," he gnarled. His teeth viciously close to the man's dazed face, but he was calm and focussed.

The lesser Alpha whimpered in response and lurched his gaze away to the side. "I-I don't know. I-he sprayed me. I don't know!"

Kuroo stepped forward, held a supportive hand on Hajime's tense shoulder, and snarled. "Where is your house. Tell us where you live. Now."

"Number seven. Blue house. Across the park."

Hajime was gone in an instant with Kuroo close behind, sprinting across the well kept grass of the park. Daichi harshly dropped the injured Alpha to the hard earth, receiving a pained grunt in response, and followed.

When Hajime saw the navy house, he smelled the air around it as he ran across the yard towards the front door.  _Two Alphas inside. Oikawa inside. Omega frightened. Hurt. No. Very hurt._ He burst through the entryway, startling a blonde Alpha seated on a brown couch, but ignored him. Oikawa's scent was wafting from upstairs, he had no time to deal with the surprised man. Kuroo piled in behind and followed his lead to the second floor, knowing that their trailing captain was more than capable of handling a single Alpha on his own.

When Daichi bowled into the residence moments later, he instinctively understood that the blonde man before him was his to deal with. Turning to the surprised Alpha on his left, he growled low, and barreled into him-- snarling with unkempt ferocity, then wildly bashing into his face with closed fists.

"Took something that was not _yours_ to take!" He barked in between strikes. "OURS. NOT. YOURS."

"Did not know he was _yours!"_ The blonde man wailed, his primal instincts overtaking his mind-- keen on defending against the larger Alpha atop him. "SORRY. DID. NOT. SMELL. HIS. ALPHA."

Daichi's throat rumbled in irritation. "He belongs to no one. He. Is. His. OWN!" He roared, momentarily startled by the honest words as they poured out of his mouth.

 _Oikawa did not belong to anyone. None of their Omega roommates did._ For the first time in his life, he found himself understanding that no single person had the right to claim ownership over another, regardless of their secondary gender-- and he was going to see to it that his opponent understood just that.

*******

Hajime could hear Oikawa's muffled cries through the door in front of him and his instincts devolved into fury as the Omega's distressed scent became more prominent on the second landing of the house. He wasted no time and plowed into the room, nearly busting the black door from its hinges. The sight he saw before him blurred his vision into a crimson madness, masking what little remained of his coherent thoughts. Oikawa was tied, his pale skin bruised and bloody, and he was pushed down into the messy covers of a bed. A large, blue haired Alpha was biting down on  _his_  Omega's neck and roughly thrusting in from behind. Hajime unleashed a vicious roar, causing the assailant to momentarily pause mid-thrust and look in his direction with dark eyes that were clouded with carnal lust. In an instant, he threw his full weight into the Alpha, desiring nothing more than to tear out the man's throat. The pair tumbled into the dresser on their left before crashing to the floor and Hajime clamored on top. When his opponent threw a fist upwards at his nose, he dodged swiftly to the right and connected his own punch with the an open jaw.

The sheer force behind Hajime's roar had momentarily halted Kuroo in his tracks, outside the now open door of the room. He glanced through the archway to Oikawa and his instincts gained a sudden burst of renewed rage at the sight of the Omega's barely conscious, bloody form. A subtle vision of Kenma flickered across his mind-- _protect the pack._  At that unwanted image, he swiftly moved into the expansive room, yanked the blue Alpha from Hajime's intense grip, and slammed him against the wall, breaking plaster.

"Take Oikawa. Make safe," he growled to his teammate as he pushed his opponent's back further into the hard wall, landing a hard strike on his bony cheek.

He didn't have to tell Hajime twice.

**Daichi~**

Kuroo threw the near-unconscious blue Alpha to the floor of the living room next to Daichi's beaten blonde one.

"Come near our pack again, and we will _kill_ you," the rooster growled, baring a set of white teeth to assert his threat.

Daichi's throat rumbled in support, adding his own dominant scent to Kuroo's when something struck him as odd. Their mixed scents were coalescing into a new, more powerful one-- a dominant smell that made the two men before them whimper and expend the last remnants of their energy to scramble away. It was unlike anything he had ever smelled in his life, a domineering fragrance that commanded--  _OUR PACK. NOT YOURS._

**Sugawara~**

Suga had cleared the main floor of the house-- a precautionary measure to ensure that,  _if_ Oikawa had been violated, then he could at least retain some dignity among his peers. Nonetheless, Suga prayed to _any_ otherworldly being that would listen for his nestmate's safety. He wanted nothing more than for Oikawa to return unharmed, but he knew from experience, both personal and otherwise, that it wouldn't be the case. When a familiar scent suddenly struck him, his worst fears were realized, and Hajime bowled the entryway, holding the very damaged Omega in his shaking arms.

"Suga. Help. Please," the Alpha snarled, eyeing him down with feral, pleading eyes. "Please. Hurt."

Suga was taken aback by the unusual of the request. Under normal circumstances, he would have to fight tooth and nail to get access to a wounded Omega in the arms of an Alpha, regardless of if the pair in question was mated. Yet, here Hajime stood in front of him, pleading through his instinctual nature for his assistance.

"Upstairs. Run a warm bath in your washroom," he commanded in a motherly tone, cringing at the sight of Oikawa's unconscious body. "I'll grab some supplies and be up in a minute. Reign in your scent, if you can."

The Alpha nodded, his throat releasing a constant rumble of anger, but Suga didn't feel threatened in the slightest. He knew that Hajime had an unprecedented amount of control over his instincts-- more than any Alpha Suga had ever met. 

*******

Suga's heart was breaking, cracking from bereaved pressure at the sight before him-- Oikawa, laying back in the warm water, badly injured and reeking of sour anxiety. Fear was a scent that his Omega friend rarely shed. His disposition was abnormally strong, Omega or otherwise. Suga clenched his fists in his lap, upset that another human had the power to cause such an abhorrent reaction from his nestmate.

He could hear Hajime's heavy footsteps, pacing in the bedroom through the open door of the bathroom behind him. The Alpha still retained a scent of unkempt rage, but he knew that it wasn't directed at him, nor would the man attempt to harm him to get to Oikawa. Hajime's mind was solely fixed on _his_ Omega's health, and he knew that Suga was his best option.

The bathwater had tinged red with Oikawa's blood, a scent that certainly didn't help the furious Alpha's state of mind. Suga knew that his instincts were roaring inside his mind-- unhappy that _his_ Omega had been injured on his watch. Regardless of Hajime's self control, Suga needed the man to calm down. He was keenly aware that Omegas, even one as strong as Oikawa, were hyper sensitive to Alpha fragrances after such tragic encounters. The chestnut boy needed calm, tranquil scents right now.

"How bad is our Omega," came a deep, familiar voice from behind him.

Suga craned his neck to the side and slightly shifted in his kneeling position on the tile to look at Daichi, standing in the door of the bathroom.

"We need to take him to the hospital if he doesn't wake up in the next," he paused, sighing as he wiped off the blood from the face of his watch. "The next fifteen minutes."

"I'm sorry. I'm _so_ sorry," Daichi responded in a low growl that was tinged with agitation. "This _shouldn't_ have happened."

Suga shook his head at the Alpha's upset.

"You protected him. You did well. Things could have been worse."

He rose from his position near the bathtub and walked over to the captain, reaching out to rub his head against the man's scent glands. "I will meet you later. Tell the house what happened, but spare the details. That's the least Oikawa deserves right now," he whispered with an affectionate purr, calming the Alpha with a tranquil scent.

Daichi nodded, understanding that his aggressive smell would only make things worse, and excused himself from the room.

Suga watched him leave, then returned to the figure in the bathtub and gently rubbed his hand on the back of the Omega's neck. "Oikawa baby, please wake up. We miss you. You are safe. You are _loved,"_ he sang, feeling tears well up in his honey coloured eyes. "You are safe, now. I promise."

It took nearly ten minutes for Oikawa's eyes to flutter open. His irises were unusually dark and unfocused, but Suga could see recognition in their depths.

"Sugaaa," the chestnut boy whispered with a faint smile, slightly sliding down into the crimson liquid of the bath. "Oh, Suga. What a mess..."

"My baby. You're safe now. I'm here. The pack is here. We've got you."

"I couldn't take them all down~" Oikawa grumbled weakly, gazing down at his hands through the blurry water. "Motherfuckers..."

Suga couldn't help but laugh at the classic _Oikawa_ statement. Wiping his teary eyes against his pale wrist he sighed in relief. "From what I heard, you got two of them pretty good. That's more than I could have done."

Oikawa gave him a feeble smile, but remained in a silent contemplation for a few minutes before speaking again. "Hey Suga, can I have a minute alone to myself? I just...need some time."

Suga met his friend's solemn gaze and furrowed his brows at the request. Normally, Omegas never wanted to be alone, especially after they experienced trauma, but Oikawa had never fit in with those stereotypes. He recalled the last time something like this had happened to-- Oikawa had asked for something similar. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts. To Suga, it seemed to be the boy's own, personal way of resetting himself.

At that thought, he granted his chestnut friend a sweet smile of support and acquiesced, deciding that he could use the time to sort out Hajime and his overbearing instincts. "Okay, ten minutes. Don't do anything stupid, or Hajime will quite literally kill me."

**Hajime~**

Hajime was overtly aware that his Omega was awake-- he heard the boy's familiar voice carry out from beyond the bathroom door. The room around him flooded back with vivid colour and he immediately crossed the room to assess the damage, only to be interrupted by Suga's gentle grasp. He allowed the silver boy to shuffle him out into the hallway, down the stairs, and out onto the front porch-- implicitly knowing that the motherly Omega knew what was best. He couldn't recall much from the events that had occurred but, much to his irritation, what he did remember were things that he wished he could forget.

_Oikawa's damaged form. The assault in the dark room. The bite marks. His bruised skin. The bloody bathwater._

Hajime steadied himself against the yellow siding of the house and shook his head, physically trying to gather some measure of control over his furious instincts. Suga leaned against the painted porch railing across from him, eyeing him intently with hazelnut eyes.

"Are you okay?" He heard the omega ask, but the words sounded far away-- calling through a long tunnel of darkness.

He internally struggled against his feral nature, grappling with his conscious mind for control, but found himself unable to form a verbal response.

"You know…" Suga continued, blanketing him with an intense, serene fragrance that eased his furious mind. He took a deep breath, grateful for the Omega's calming scent. Without it, he would be punching walls. "If you hadn't been there, things would be much worse."

 _Much worse_. The thought of things being worse filled him with an extraordinary dread that nearly stopped his heart. He felt Suga place a small hand on his shoulder and he allowed himself to melt further into the tranquil fragrance, stronger now that he was in closer proximity.

"Hajime, seriously, _thank you,"_ the silver boy whispered with such sincerity that he was startled to his senses. 

_He didn't deserve to be thanked, not after everything that had happened. If he had been honest with his feelings to begin with, none of this would have happened. It was his fault. His fault._

"I couldn't save him," he snarled, feeling his shoulders tense up against his neck in frustration. "I fucked up. Fuck."

"You  _saved_ him."

"It doesn't matter. It shouldn't have happened in the first place! I should've-"

"Hajime," Suga interrupted in a serious tone, strengthening the grip on his shoulder. "There is _no_ point in debating how things could have gone. The only thing that matters is what happened, which was that you and the Alphas saved him. You guys _saved_ him. You came to his defense, even though you had no obligation to do so. That deserves a thank you. I don't want to hear another peep of self-indignation out of you, okay?"

Hajime released a deep and exhaustive sigh. He knew that Suga's words were correct in their own right, but they did little to even scratch the surface of his own self-hatred-- a feeling that grew even more prominent with his realization that he desired nothing more than to hold the chestnut boy in his arms, cloak him in an Alpha fragrance to keep him safe. He couldn't keep it a secret anymore.

"I want to scent him. I have for a while now...but I don't deserve to," he whispered, glancing out into the front yard. The large oak tree was a bright feature, illuminated by the moonlight, drawing his eye.

"I know."

 _Of course Suga knew. How could he not?_  Hajime had been kidding himself, feigning ignorance to maintain a half-hearted facade of disinterest. He might have been able to keep his secret from his Alpha teammates, but Omegas were smarter.

"But..." He started, returning Suga's motherly gaze. "I...I _need_ to scent him. I don't...I don't know what to do, Suga. He's all I can think about...I've never...felt like this before. Is this how it is?"

The silver haired Omega granted him a sweet smile and returned to the position across from him, crossing his delicate arms over his chest. "Is _what_ how it is?"

Hajime closed his eyes in resignation, not wanting to explain himself, but understanding that he had to if he wanted answers. "I've...slept with Omegas before. But this...this is different. I don't...feel this way with them," he disclosed, pausing to scratch his dark hair and gather his frantic thoughts. "I've never felt this...feeling. It's like-"

"Like, you're in a panic when you're not near them?"

Hajime flinched slightly, then snapped his eyes to the unknown speaker's direction. He had been so distracted by his own thoughts that he hadn't even heard, or smelled, his captain's approach. Daichi met his gaze, flashing him a cheeky, knowing smile, and he groaned slightly at his own transparency. "Oh, don't be so dramatic, Hajime. You've come this far already. You might as well embrace the fact that your friends know your feelings," the captain drawled, clapping him on the back with a chuckle. "And that they can help."

Suga rolled his eyes, but Hajime could smell the Omega's scent shift from a mild tranquility to a sweeter, more joyous fragrance in the presence of his Alpha mate.  _Well...eventual mate._

Daichi waltzed over to the silver boy and settled in next to him against the white porch railing. "It feels like panic, right?" He echoed his previous statement, tapping Suga playfully on the head, receiving a quiet huff in return.

Hajime debated the words for a moment before responding. "Yeah, but it's not just that. It's like, the air doesn't smell as good. Like, I'm always hyper aware that something is missing. I feel... _empty_ without it. Without him..."

"You _want_ to scent him. Not just for kicks, but because you want him to be safe," Daichi determined, giving him a knowing nod. "I've…" he continued, eyeing Suga's amused form at his side. "I...know what you're feeling. I get it. Believe me."

Hajime knew that the plain words were all Daichi desired to divulge in front of the silver boy. It was clear that the pair still hadn't worked out an amicable agreement on mating, and the captain was hesitant to show all of his cards too soon. He knew that his Alpha friend  _loved_ Suga, both his scent and his disposition gave him away, but he was quickly learning that Omegas came with their own, unique baggage that no person, Alpha or otherwise, could immediately reconcile.

"Hajime," Suga broke in after a few minutes of silence. "You should go and check on him. Your scent is calmer now. I think it'll be okay. Plus, Oikawa's tough."

He slowly nodded and began to sluggishly shuffle towards the doorway to the house before the silver boy spoke up once more

"But, Hajime, don't force it, okay? He's vulnerable and very fragile, right now. Even if he won't admit it, or show it," Suga asserted, then shuffled on his feet, suddenly nervous. "Please don't tell him I said that."

"Okay. I won't."

It was all Hajime could manage as a response, and he hoped that Suga knew that he was sincere in his feelings towards Oikawa. His body felt heavy, almost unresponsive to his will. He _needed_ to check on Oikawa, the thought remained fixed inside his mind throughout the entire porch conversation. But he was.. _.frightened_. He had never divulged his feelings to anyone, let alone an Omega. Nonetheless, both his instincts and heart commanded that he, at the very least, try.

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa had drained the murky bathwater and turned on the shower, releasing a joyous sigh as the clean water cascaded over him. He was so very sore-- every inch of his body was screaming at him to be still, but he ignored it. All that mattered to him, was that he was still _alive._ He scrubbed his hands against his body, lathering himself up with soap in an attempt to remove the scent of the blue haired Alpha from the pores of his pale skin. He didn't care that his aggressive swaths were causing his angry wounds to reopen, his mind was too foggy and detached to notice the renewed pain that his actions caused. Once he felt that he had removed as much of the unwanted scent as he could, he gingerly sat down on the warm porcelain of the tub and allowed the hot water spritz onto his bruised face.

He barely registered his other wounds. His sex was exceedingly sore and, worse yet, it was a physical reminder of the ordeal he had just been through.  _That fucking Alpha shouldn't have been blessed with such a big knot,_  he mused, resenting whatever god had endowed the man with it. More than anything else, he was relieved that the monster hadn't come inside of him. At that thought, he sent out a silent thank you to the universe, chuckling slightly at his contradicting feelings of anger and thankfulness towards the fates.

As he sat in the tub, he attempted to recall the events. It was his personal way of coping with trauma. The more he recounted things, the better able he was at compartmentalizing the experience-- tuck them away in a small box at the back of his mind with a sign that said _do not touch._ While the ordeal was still hazy, he did remember smelling Hajime at some point, and he had felt such relief at its protective nature. Even now he was basking in it, the bathroom was coated in the familiar smell.

He was also fairly certain that Kuroo had been there as well, and perhaps Daichi. _Yes...he was almost positive that he had smelled them, too._ He had never heard of an Alpha coming to the defense of an Omega that they weren't mated with, or at least _interested_ in, let alone a pack of them. His mother and father had frequently protected him during his childhood, but that was different. They were a familial pack and they were both Alphas. 

"Oikawa?"

He stiffened at the soft call of his name. He hadn't smelled Hajime's approach with the bathroom so caked in the man's Alpha fragrance.  _Had Suga sent the man up to check up on him? What the fuck was he going to say? At the very least...he should thank Hajime for his assistance...right?_

He yanked the shower handle off, shivering from the loss of heat. "Hajime? One second I'll come out. Can you shut the bathroom door?"

"Sure."

He waited to hear an audible closing of the door before pushing aside the navy shower curtain to step out onto the cold, white tile. When he noticed his favorite turquoise shirt and some grey sweatpants laying across the porcelain sink, he smiled to himself, grateful for Suga's care. _Maternal, as always._

After gingerly pulling on his clothing, ignoring his aching muscles as he did so, he paused to look at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were dark and sunken in their sockets, and there were deep bite marks running down his neck-- he knew that they didn't stop at his shirt line. He sighed, only half successful in shrugging off his exasperation. He hated being upset about things that were out of his control. _..or upset about things in general_. Gripping the silver doorknob, he steadied himself and released another quiet sigh, then pushed open the black door.

He was greeted with a pacing Alpha with bloody knuckles. The gruff looking man stopped in place and raked his dark gaze over his shivering body before meeting his eyes. Pain and anger were plastered on his tense face-- squeezing Oikawa's beating heart. Oikawa maintained eye contact and subtly sniffed the air, only to have his senses assaulted by a full-bodied protective fragrance. While there were subtle hints of rage laced in its possessive tones, the overall feeling of the fragrance was warm and safe.

_He...kind of liked it._

"Thanks for  _saving_ me...I promise you won't have to do it again~~" He chided with as much energy as he could muster, attempting to ease the tense situation. Hajime remained silent, standing across the room, clenching and unclenching his bruised fists. "This stern facade doesn't suit you Haj-"

"Stop," the Alpha interrupted him with an intense, throaty growl.

Oikawa cinched his lips together and stiffened, unsure of where the conversation was going. He wished that Hajime would act like his usual, chirpy self. Oikawa had no idea how to handle this strange, pensive mood-- it was unfamiliar territory.

"I..." Hajime attempted again, but faltered, unable to find the right words. "Fuck..."

"You look like shit, Hajime. Almost as bad as me~~" Oikawa playfully challenged, once again trying bring back their familiar banter. At this point, he was _desperate_ for it-- familiarity was easier. 

"You always look good," came a immediate, yet quiet, response that stunned him.

"Wha-" He tried to utter out, but Hajime was on him in an instant-- pulling him into a hearty embrace.

He debated pulling away, but found himself unable to. _No_... _unwiling to_. He sighed into Hajime's shoulder and allowed himself to drown in the familiar scent. It was resolute, strong, and maintained a hint of something that was almost serrated-- just like Hajime's gruff personality. It was not long before he lost control of his tumultuous emotions, externally breaking down in the arms of _his_ Alpha. Tears pooled in his hollow eyes, threatening to spill over long lashes, and he began to shake-- physically releasing his internal frustration with himself.

Hajime gingerly picked up his fragile form and carried him over to the bed, cradling him in strong arms. Oikawa took a mental note of the covers-- they were a warm grey that suited the snarky man. Hajime laid the two of them down on the soft mattress and tugged the plush comforter over their forms. Without another word, he pulled the Oikawa into the curve of his body and held him in a tight embrace.

Oikawa's body immediately relaxed, feeling safe against the strong muscles of Hajime's chest. _Safe, in the strong arms wrapped around him. Safe, basking in the powerful scent._ He relaxed his tense mind and let his emotions completely boil over, no longer caring to maintain his composure. His body renewed its shaking, but this time, it was accompanied by distressed sobs.

_It had been a very long time since he'd last cried._

**Hajime** ~

Hajime held on to Oikawa as if his life depended on it, and it felt like it did. He had never realized just how fragile the Omega was. The boy had been extremely light in his arms, something he did not expect after seeing him fight against such dominant Alphas. When Oikawa began to sob against him, radiating flickering scents of anxiety and shame, he felt his own heart crack into pieces. He wanted to scent the Omega before, but now, the desire was so intensely strong that it took every fiber of his being to prevent himself from doing so. Feeling Oikawa's distress from such a close proximity was riling up an unknown instinct within him-- an instinct that he was beginning to understand as _affection_.

Oikawa's harsh sobs hit his chest with sharp daggers of grief. He wanted nothing more than to make the pain stop-- for both of them. In scenting the chestnut Omega, he could show his affection for him, and perhaps, it would help him to alleviate some of the stressful upset. He let the thought linger for a moment before shaking it away, internally promising to not scent the Omega without expressed permission. 

Hajime maintained the embrace, allowing Oikawa to experience his emotions in full of his own accord. After what seemed like an eternity, the Omega finally relaxed into his chest and the anxious scent of the room slowly shifted back to a pleasant combination of ocean-clean laundry.

"Hajime?" Oikawa mumbled into the covers, gingerly pulling them back to reveal his puffy, drained face.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming for me..."

Hajime couldn't form a response to the simple remark. He was still too angry with himself for not being there sooner, and allowing it to happen in the first place. He hated all the gratitude he had been given by the Omegas of late. If he had just sucked up his pride and admitted his feelings sooner, he could have kept a better eye on Oikawa-- _keep him safe and unharmed._

"And thanks for holding me. I didn't think I'd like it..." The chestnut boy quietly disclaimed, his pink mouth curving into a slight smirk as he glanced up at the smooth ceiling.

"You've never been held by an Alpha before?" Hajime questioned, admiring the sharp features of Oikawa's pale-- eternally happy that the dark room was masking the bruises plastered across his pale skin.

"Other than my father, no. Not really. Have you ever held an Omega?"

"No..."

Oikawa laughed at their inexperience and Hajime melted into the renewed waves of his clean fragrance.

"Well aren't we a pair~~" He chided, turning his head on the grey pillow to meet Hajime's gaze.

 _A pair,_ Hajime mentally repeated as he searched Oikawa's tired eyes for an answer to his agonizing dilemma. After a few silent moments of internal debate, he puffed up his courage and swallowed his pride.

"CanIscentyou?" He asked, the words coming out in a rapid fire jumble of syllables from his nervousness. "I mean...if you want...to. If you don't want to...that's cool..."

Oikawa's eyes slightly widened and he granted him a knowing smirk before returning his gaze to the ceiling once again.

"I think-"

"Listen," Hajime interjected, starting into an unexpected monologue. "I know I give you shit all of the time. Maybe that's made you think that I'm a shitty person. And as much as I'd like to convince you otherwise, everything I've done in my past shows that I am. I've done _terrible_ things to Omegas. I was in stupid and uneducated, but that's not an excuse. Being ignorant about the horrors that Omegas face doesn't warrant treating them terribly," he explained, nervously thumbing over the fresh scrapes on his damaged knuckles. "But I want you to know that I'm _trying_ to change. I helped an Omega out of a tough situation at a club yesterday and this morning, I was at their house fixing their front porch. I know it's not much-"

"I'm sorry. Did I hear that correctly? You _fixed_ up an Omega's house today?" Oikawa interrupted, rising to a seated to position to laugh at the absurd statement.

"Uh...yeah," Hajime replied sheepishly, grimacing when the chestnut boy winced in pain from the sudden movement.

"Huh. Well, before you started in on that _enormous_ speech, I was about to tell you that I would like you to scent me."

Hajime was taken aback by the statement, but allowed his heart to swell at the words.

"Wait, _really?"_ He asked, desiring clarification, wanting to hear the sweet words again. "Seriously...?"

Oikawa rolled his eyes in his classic fashion and smirked. _"Yes,_ Hajime. I want you to scent me~~"

Hajime shot up and eyed down the chestnut Omega, tilting his head in question.

"You know that there are...certain instincts that come with me scenting you...right? I won't be able to stop them...so you need to be-"

"What? Like licking my wounds and being all overprotective? I think I can live with that. Plus, that shit will help me heal faster~~"

Hajime held the Oikawa's gaze for another moment, giving the boy a chance to change his mind, but internally praying that he wouldn't. When the chestnut Omega raised a cheeky, questioning eyebrow, he shuffled off the covers and moved to the edge of the bed.

"What are you-" Oikawa began, but was quickly interrupted with a possessive growl.

"Shut up. Just don't talk for a second, okay? Lie on your back."

Hajime gingerly lifted the turquoise shirt over Oikawa's head. The newly exposed skin was illuminated by the moonlight, pouring in through the room's only window. The Omega laid back into the soft fabric covering the mattress, allowing Hajime to run his hands over his damaged body. Hajime carefully examined the bite marks that ran down the his neck, across his collar bones, and down to his stomach, fighting the urge to growl possessively at the harsh injuries. Lowering his mouth to Oikawa's scent glands, he took in a deep breath-- he could still smell the blue haired Alpha. _That wasn't going to last long._

After another inhale, Hajime began to cautiously lick Oikawa's wounds, using his tongue to replace the scent embedded in them with his own. When the Omega began to purr under his weight, a liquid honey pooled in his stomach and he willed his erection to stay at a manageable level. The more he explored the boy's body, the more he noticed scars left from previous encounters-- a realization that both he, and his feral nature, did _not_ like.

Once he felt that he had sufficiently covered the injuries on Oikawa's front, he gently turned the boy over onto his stomach and gave the same attention to those on his slender back. While he still felt malevolent, especially after seeing that Oikawa's back was in much worse shape than his front, Hajime used it to fuel his desire to protect him. The wounds, both old and new, made him sick with a calculated rage-- fueling a dark and venomous instinct within him that commanded: _Never again._   _He would never again allow anyone to hurt his Omega. His._

"Oikawa," he growled huskily after finishing his wound care on his exposed back.

"Yes," the Omega responded, seemingly out of breath from the personal contact between them.

"I can still smell him on you. I want it gone. I do not want to smell  _him_  anymore. I can't. I'll go insane."

At his possessive words, Oikawa's purring renewed, much louder than before.

"I trust you. Do what you need to do. I...I don't want to smell him either. I...only want to smell like you," he whispered, gazing up at Hajime with trusting, yet hesitant eyes.

With that permission, Hajime rearranged the Omega's delicate figure, pulling him to the edge of the bed to lift his narrow hips into the air. Oikawa adjusted himself slightly, then arched his stomach towards the mattress and comfortably laid his cheek on the mass of grey covers. Knowing what Hajime desired, he reached back and slowly pushed his sweatpants down his upturned ass, exposing it to the cold air of the room.

Immediately, Hajime sensed his hesitation. "I'm not going to knot you, I promise," he affirmed with a throaty rumble of affection. "I have _some_ restraint. You're too injured. And I would  _never_ do that without your permission. Never."

"Okay..." Came a purring response that warmed his soul with its open trust. 

He shuffled the grey sweatpants down further, pooling them at the crevasses of Oikawa's knees, and ran his hands over his ass. The pale skin was laced with deep bite marks that boiled his blood all over again. He took a few minutes to graze his tongue over them, feeling internally pleased as the blue assailant's scent faded with each passing flick. Once he felt that he had licked them clean, he gingerly grazed his hands upwards and gently spread Oikawa's cheeks apart. As he slowly moved his head towards the damaged sex, he felt Oikawa take in a sharp breath of anxiety.

"I'll be gentle. I _promise_. I need this to heal. I need _his_  scent off of you. You're  _mine_. Not  _his_."

"I...okay," the chestnut Omega whispered and unleashed a sudden wave of joy that sent frosty chills down Hajime's spine-- _he was never going to tire of that feeling._

Gingerly, he began to lick the damaged hole, and Oikawa to let out soft moans of pain as he moistened the area with a gentle tongue.

"I know it hurts. I'm sorry. I'm almost done," he reassured, caressing down the Omega's hip to the hard muscles of his thigh. "Just hold on..."

After a few minutes of unusual pleasure, the likes of which Hajime had never experienced before, he was triumphantly pleased when he could no longer smell the disgusting blue Alpha. He took a step back and growled, trying to regain his composure. The action had not be overtly sexual in nature, but being so close to his Omega's sex had brought out his instinct to fuck. He knew that it wasn't the same type of desire he had grown accustomed to with other Omegas. With Oikawa, it was personal, blissful even. Their close proxminity, the satisfaction of mending Oikawa's wounds, and the affection he felt from the content purrs were melting his insides with a tender feeling of... _love_. It was not the self-indulgent behavior he had used with Omegas in the past-- those interactions seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, he wanted nothing more than to fall into the infinity that was Oikawa.

"Keep going, pleaseee~" The Omega panted as he rocked his exposed sex, attempting to entice Hajime back.

"I can't," Hajime growled, tearing his gaze away with great effort.

He needed to look at something, _anything,_ but the beguiling sight before him. Hearing Oikawa's whines, seeing his upturned and exposed position, he wanted to take the Omega then and there. His cock was throbbing, hard as stone and ready to fuck, but the small, sane portion of his mind that remained, knew better. He took another step back and attempted to shove down his feral desire, clumsily bumping into the wall behind him. 

Oikawa expertly rolled off the edge of the bed with an attractive grace that left him dizzy with arousal. _Get it together_ , he thought in panic, _don't ruin this fresh relationship, with the Omega you have been dreaming for weeks, before it even has a chance to get off the ground._  He wasn't entirely certain that he would be able survive without Oikawa's scent if his affections were suddenly rejected-- especially now, after experiencing it in such a raw, unchecked form.

"Let me take care of this," Oikawa drawled out in a sultry voice, shocking him back to reality with a delicate hand on Hajime's unexposed cock.

Hajime's eyes shot down, then instantly snapped back up to the ceiling when they saw the chestnut Omega's naked form, kneeling before him with a coy smirk. "No. You're too injured," he barked up at the roof, unable to help a growl from escaping his lips when a slender hand rubbed harder against his swollen cock.

"With my mouth then."

"No."

"Hajime…" Oikawa said softly, gazing up at him from the floor with stern eyes. "I  _want_  to."

Hajime's throat rumbled with arousal, but he tried to remain steadfast-- refusing to watch as the chestnut Omega expertly pulled down his black sweat pants, exposing his very large, thick cock.

"You don't have-" He started, only the be pleasantly interrupted by a soft tongue, flicking over the tip of his length.

"It's time for you to be quiet," Oikawa whispered, running the length of his tongue up the base of Hajime's swollen cock. "You did something for _me,_ now I'm going to do something for _you."_

Hajime groaned at the blissful contact and he returned Oikawa's gaze-- hazel eyes looking up at him as he lapped at the pre-cum spilling out of Hajime's pulsing tip. After a few minutes of teasing, he  took the large member fully in his mouth and Hajime resisted the urge to hold the Omega's head and thrust. He didn't want to be aggressive with _his_ Omega. _Not tonight. Not after everything that had happened. He could wait._

He was suspended in sexual euphoria as Oikawa teased his member, using an expert tongue to prolong him to the point of near insanity. His entire body felt alive with sparks of pleasant energy-- from his crown down to his toes. An erotic fragrance drifted off of Oikawa's milky skin and blended with his own, carnal scent-- he wanted to bathe in the mixture for eternity.  _How had he lived his life without this...feeling?_  It was intoxicating _\--_ an unchecked warmth that spread out, fluttering like butterflies from his lower abdomen to his entire body.

When he finally came, it was the best orgasm he had ever experienced, and he hadn't even knotted. He couldn't fathom what knotting into Oikawa would even feel like--  _was it possible to feel a higher level of ecstasy than he had just experienced?_  He watched as the Omega swallowed every drop of his seed, then licked his lips swollen lips. He grazed a gentle hand over Oikawa's jawline, promising himself that he would do _everything_ in his power to not fuck things up between them. He couldn't bear to lose the chestnut boy. Not after tonight. Not after such a tender, personal experience. Gingerly pulling the Omega into an embrace on the plush mattress, Hajime snuggled in next to him under the soft covers and the pair, basking in each others scents, fell into a long and restful sleep.


	7. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smutty fluff smut chapter ;) 
> 
> Setting up for the second arc of the story....but editing is so tiresomeeee hahahaha.
> 
> As always **Trigger Warning** and there are likely grammatical errors, I just worked a hella long shift so I am v tired. 
> 
> Enjoy! 
> 
> (Next chapter will finally throw Keiji/Bokuto into the mix, yay!)

**Chapter Seven: Understanding**

**Daichi~**

"I don't think you guys should leave the house without an Alpha anymore," Daichi put forth in more question than statement, not wanting Suga to think that he was trying to cage him in.

At his words, the silver Omega crawled out of his grasp, much to his irritation, and sat up in a mess of navy covers next to him.

" _You guys_  meaning the Omegas?" He chided, poking Daichi playfully in the ribs. "Meaning me?"

"Sorry, but you know what I mean," he faltered, guilt lacing its way into his otherwise calm scent. "You know, just for now..."

"And how to you propose this to work? Everyone's class schedules barely line up as it is. Plus, there's no way that some of the Alphas...or even certain Omegas, would go for it."

He knew that Suga hated his marginalized position-- he wanted to be free, free to come and go at all times of the day, to places that he pleased without any stress. Daichi _hated_ the circumstances, too, but for now, he needed to ensure a higher degree of safety for the silver Omega and the flock. At least, until he could come up with a better game plan. It had been just over two weeks since they had moved in-- _two weeks, two cases of assault, one case of sexual assault, and one case of rape._ The figures were overwhelming and they shed light on a portion of society that he wished he didn't know about.

"Okay, well, maybe not during class hours, but all other hours," He proposed, furrowing his brows at the implications of his idea. "Three assaults, Suga. _Three._ In  _two_ weeks. That's unreal! We can't let this keep happening. It's ridiculous..."

"Mmm," Suga replied, cogs turning behind his honey coloured eyes-- all the while, releasing a massive wave of joy at his protective words that pleasantly attacked his willing senses.

He reached forward to flick a silver hair out of Suga's thoughtful face and yawned in the morning light. "I know it sucks. I'm not saying any of this to try and keep you all under supervision or house arrest. It's just until we can figure out a way to better protect you guys. I don't know, I think this is our best option."

"Alright," Suga relinquished after a few moments of silent contemplation. "I'm in agreement. Do you have a plan?"

Daichi pulled the Omega into his lap, scenting him against his neck. "We could partner everyone up?" He offered before falling back into the plush pillows behind him in contentment. "Just when people leave the house, you know?"

Suga glanced back from his perched position in his lap and flashed him with _the look._ "Well, I guess three of us are basically partnered up already and-"

"Yeah," Daichi interjected, his eyes darkening with instinctual fury at the thought of another Alpha touching his Omega. "No way are you wandering about without me. My sanity can't take another hit like that."

Suga rolled his eyes, but smiled sweetly at the compassionate words. "Yeah, yeah. You _Alphas_ …" he playfully chastised, poking him in the forehead with a delicate forefinger. "Oikawa, Nishinoya, and I are all out of the equation. Yachi doesn't leave the house, so that basically leaves Shoyo, Yamaguchi, and Keiji."

"And Tobio, Tsukishima, and Tanaka."

"Tanaka would be a team player, but do you think that Tobio and Tsukishima would go for it?"

"I know Tsukishima has been eyeing Yamaguchi, albeit from a far. Tobio...he might prove difficult, but I think I can convince him to keep an eye on either Keiji or Shoyo."

"I'd prefer an eye on Shoyo," Suga ventured, scrunching up his narrow nose in frustration. "He probably needs the most help. His scent is _so_ distinct and he doesn't know how to properly reign it in. Plus, Keji is older and more experienced. Annnnd he's the best out of all of us at suppressing his Omega fragrance. By far."

"Perfect," Daichi replied with another morning yawn and reached behind to adjust a pillow against his back. "I'll talk to them today. I'll get Tanaka to watch Keiji, then."

"Excellent...but, I want you to know," Suga added, gracefully shuffling off of him lap to look at him with intense eyes. "When you're not at home and I need to leave the house, I'm still going to go. I'm not sacrificing my freedom just because we've had a few bumps and scrapes. I got along just fine before I met you."

Daichi's throat rumbled in frustration at the declatation and he rolled his head back to look up at the ceiling. _Why did he have to be so difficult?_ Sure, it was a fair perspective-- he knew that it wasn't right to treat Suga like his property... _but still...it was for his own protection._  He wasn't planning on it being permanent, he just needed a bit of time to formulate a better plan. _A more long term plan._

"That being said," Suga continued and he lolled his head back to meet the silver boy's intense gaze. "Maybe, well, I don't know…"

Daichi perked up and raised an eyebrow at the crimson flush, spreading over Suga's normally pale face. _Was he insinuating..._

" _Maybe_...it would be safer if I had more of your scent."

He coughed out, choking on his own spit at the sudden admission in his favor. "What exactly do you mean, _Suga_ ," he questioned in a deep voice, his eyes darkening with feral desire. _He needed clarification. Now._

"Well, not mating with me, so don't get the wrong idea!" Suga hurried to reply, shaking his slender hands out in front of him. "But, maybe, it wouldn't be a bad idea to sleep together? I mean, only if you want to! I think you do...at least...I don't know...it would help, right?" He finished shyly, averting his gaze to the bay window on his left as he fidgeted with the ends of the white bed sheet.

Daichi smiled at Suga's embarassment and pondered the idea for a moment, admiring the Omega's soft features in the natural light pouring into the room. The act itself needed no contemplation, he was more than eager to sleep with the silver beauty. However, the effects of the act...those required a bit of thought. Sleeping together would certainly keep Suga smelling like him for longer periods of time-- much longer than scenting would. Nonetheless, it wouldn't afford as much protection as mating would, but he knew that Suga was no where near ready enough to take that leap, even if he was.

"Why are you so quiet?" Suga questioned hotly, furrowing his brows in subtle anger. "I propose sleeping together and you get all quiet! What's that about?!"

"Sorry," Daichi faltered, feeling his knot harden against his sweatpants at the sensitive subject matter. "I was just thinking about the...logistics of it."

"I didn't know you Alphas were able to think about the _logistics_ of sex," the silver boy chirped, playfully sticking out his tongue. "I thought it was just always on your mind~"

"Well, of course I want to sleep with you," he affirmed with a deep growl that rattled his vocal cords, sitting up as he releasing a subconscious and domineering scent of arousal. "I've wanted to fuck you since the moment I first smelled you."

Suga gracefully rolled forward and gave a him sly smirk. The morning sun radiated off of his delicate features, brightly shimmering through his silver hair. Daichi trailed his gaze down from his eyes, to the beauty mark on his cheek, then lower to his soft, pink lips. When he noticed a shift in Suga's fragrance, from tranquility to desire, his feral instincts were yanked out from their slumber. He gingerly grabbed the Omega, shuffled off his grey shirt, and flipped him onto his stomach. As he pushed the boy into the mattress, Daichi caressed up his smooth skin, nipping and licking up his spine. His skin tasted supremely delicious and his scent became so intoxicating that Daichi's eyes deepened with carnal lust. _He had spoken the truth, he wanted to fuck the silver boy from the first moment he had laid eyes on him._ It wasn't the same instinctual Alpha feeling that other aroused Omegas provoked within him. _With Suga...it was different...more personal and satisfying_ \-- he had yet to understand why.  

As he grazed his hands down the Omega's lower back, he gripped the waistband of his pajama sweats and shimmied them down over his slender thighs. Every hair on Daichi's body rose up in a cool shiver at the sight of the wet briefs underneath. His breathing grew heavy with an intense want and he knelt frozen in place on the mattress, eyeing the area with the instinctual thought of claiming.

"Daichi…" Suga called softly over his shoulder in a dreamy voice that melted his insides.

He wanted to touch every inch of the silver boy, feel his slender body against his own tanned skin. His raw instincts bashed against his skull, demanding for physical contact-- commanding him that he would die without it. Indeed, Daichi felt with every fiber of his being that he might. Suga's aroused scent was ever increasing in its intoxication, diffusing inside his nostrils with its liquid, chocolate fragrance. He released a throaty rumble and slid over the fragile figure beneath him, pushing down on Suga's shoulder blades as he deeply inhaled into his exposed scent glands.

" _Mine_ ," he rumbled against the Omega's exposed neck, nipping hard against the soft skin. When Suga whimpered into the covers at his possessive remark, he slid his tongue up the Omega's jugular vein, grazing his teeth up against the delicate spot. " _Mine_ ," he said again with an intense snarl, taking pleasure in the reaction his touch spurned from the silver boy. 

He gently pulled the Suga's head back by his silver locks, suddenly craving eye contact. The Omega's eyes met his own, irises cloudy with arousal and Daichi maintained the upturned position, one fist embedded in his thick hair. Then, he slid a free hand downwards and Suga's eyes darted forward at the personal touch. Daichi's throat rumbled out in warning, commanding back eye contact, and he watched on with increased arousal as Suga softly whined in concession and flickered his honey coloured eyes back. He pushed down the moistened briefs, exposing the Omega's most private area to the morning light of the room and smirked as the Omega whimpered again.

Please," he panted with a aroused shiver as Daichi teased a finger across his soaked hole.

The sensual tone of his voice sparked Daichi's instincts, sending him into overdrive. His sexual fragrance burst out, blanketing the room with unhinged force and Suga whined out loudly, clamping his eyes shut-- his own fragrance responding to the fresh, dominant one spreading through the air. Daichi released his grip on the silver locks and sat back, trying to slow himself down. He was mere moments from completely losing his conscious mind to the unchecked pleasure of his instincts.

" _Suga_ , I'll try my best to be gentle, but I can't promise anything. I'm sorry," he grumbled in a low, threatening tone, and the Omega beneath him shivered in at his growl.

"I don't care, I need you inside me. Please," he whined into the plush covers, panting in need. "Please, just, please."

Daichi took a deep breath, ready to let go. His feral nature overtook him, influenced by their coalescing fragrance. He roughly pulled off what little remained of Suga's clothing and the Omega responded by arching his stomach into the mattress in presentation. With Suga's hips upwards, sensually shaking out in front of him, he went completely feral. He tore off his restrictive clothing with fervor, then leaned forward to sniff the dripping sex before him, his cock pulsing with hot anticipation.

"Pleaseeeeee," Suga quietly moaned and grasped into the comforter ahead of him, twisting it in his grasp. "I neeeeeeed it..."

Daichi dug his hands into the Omega's delicate hips, with enough force to bruise, and slowly pushed one finger inside the swollen sex with ease.

"Pleaseee, Alpha," came a second, much louder moan from the silver boy. He rolled his hips back against Daichi's hand to fill himself more-- his inner thighs wet from his sex, dripping down onto the under sheet of the bed. "Inside, please..."

Daichi ran his hands over Suga's pale skin and gripping onto his hips once more, eagerly lining up his cock against the soaked hole. When the silver Omega rocked his hips back again, attempting to push against his knot, he abruptly pulled away and leaned forward to bite down on his pale neck.

"No," he commanded though gnarled teeth, making his dominant status known to his partner. _He did the fucking. He was the one who did the fucking. Suga was his Omega._

"I...yes...please..." Suga panted as he furiously nodded his head into the plush comforter, arching his hips up further-- trying to seduce Daichi into action.

Satisfied with his compliance, Daichi once again lined his aching cock against the wet sex and readied to push in. When he thrust forward, deep inside Suga's warm insides, Daichi gripped around his neck and pulled him against his own, hard body. Suga gasped loudly at the sudden the insertion and arched forward, away from him, grasping onto his flexed thighs. As he continued to thrust in from behind, grazed his tongue over the Omega's ear, receiving affection nips back in return.

Daichi had never before experienced such serene pleasure. He felt as if he was bathing in Suga's fragrance, more consumed by its intoxicating nature than ever before. As their skin made contact, electric sparks shot through his naval, growing hotter and more intense with each graze. _He wanted more. More contact. More of his Omega's aroused scent. He wanted to be deeper inside of his moist sex._ It was a bottomless pit of pleasure-- a pool of smooth chocolate for him to dive into, as deep as he pleased.

Finally, after minutes of unbounded luxury, he at last succumbed to their combined fragrance and began to knot. He pulled Suga against his body and ground around slowly at his insides, heightening their pleasure. When the Omega's sex began to struggle against his knotted girth, he did his best to utter out from his controlling instincts.

"Relax. Please. I will hurt you. Please."

Suga whimpered and granted him a slight nod, shaking in a combination of euphoria and pain. He panted with glassy eyes as his small sex locked into Daichi's crotch. Mere moments passed before Daichi climaxed in the most wonderful orgasm of his life and his seed bursting into the waiting hole, dripping out as it reached capacity. He maintained his gentle grip on Suga, holding him against his chest as his knot shrank back to its usual size. Then, he gingerly slipped it out, feeling supremely content and satiated as the silver Omega relaxed down against the messy bed. It took him a few moments to recuperate his senses-- too enraptured in watching his seed spill out of Suga's exposed sex.

"Suga," he panted out, his instincts finally shrinking back inside his waking mind. He laid himself down next to  _his_  Omega, and wrapped the boy in a sweaty embrace. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

Suga shook his head and Daichi felt him smile against his chest. "It was wonderful," he whispered, his throat beginning to rumble in an affectionate purr. "Really..."

At the quiet affirmation, Daichi's heart nearly stopped-- overwhelmed with happy joy. 

**Sugawara~**

"Daichi, I need to go and check on my flock!" Suga  whined, pushing away the Alpha's strong arms from his body. "Let gooooooo."

They had spent the entire morning fucking. In the shower. On the floor. In the bed. He had loved every minute of it-- something about Daichi's aroused scent always left him blubbering for more. _More of everything._ The man made him feel... _safe_. It was a different sort of security than he was used to. Most Alphas were possessive, but Daichi's fragrance was almost familial in nature. Not in attraction, they certainly weren't platonic, but in the unconditional protection it offered up. The captain seemed to understand him and, more than that, it seemed like he _wanted_ to understand him-- wanted to learn about the harsh realities of being an Omega. In fact, Suga had been certain that Alphas like Daichi didn't exist at all.  

Daichi gnashed his teeth, but allowed Suga to escape his grasp. He hurried to dress himself with the clothes he had worn the previous night-- _they seriously needed a wash...they reeked of sex. He was going to have to change them before checking in on Yachi._

"I like you better with your clothes off," a low growl rumbled out from behind him-- from the very naked Alpha, lounging on the messy bed.

"Daichi, pull yourself together!" He chastised sweetly. "I want to stay, but I have obligations!" 

"I can smell that your heat is coming up pretty soon," Daichi stated with a sly smirk, catching him off guard with the sudden forward remark.

He stiffened, then turned to face the Alpha, adjusting his shirt on his narrow shoulders. "Ah, I forgot about that," he chirped back in a successful attempt to hide his discomfort-- _he was never going to mate. No matter how good Daichi proved himself to be, he would not fold. Not in this._

"Forgot about what?"

"That Alphas could smell when a heat is going to happen after sleeping with an Omega."

"Oh, yeah. I guess I couldn't smell it before now," Daichi replied with a chuckle that was almost a snort. "Useful."

"I'll be keeping my injection on me the next few days, so you don't need to worry about it," he added, trying to make his intentions know in a round about sort of way. "I'm a responsible Omega!"

"Mmm, okay."

"Well..." Suga continued, noticing the sullen change in the Alpha's scent. "I'm, uh, going to check on Yachi. Give her a bit of company. See you downstairs in a bit?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

Suga nodded with a hesitant smile and exited the room. He hated the feeling of guilt in his stomach at Daichi's disappointment. He shook his head, _no, Daichi was an Alpha and he was never going to mate. The captain was just going to have to deal with that fact._

***

"Yachi, good afternoon!" Suga chirped to the small figure nestled under the soft blankets on the floor of the nesting room. "How are you feeling?"

"Hi, Suga," Yachi mumbled back, pulling the pink covers off of her sleepy head. "Um...you smell different…"

"Suuuuugaaaaa~" Oikawa burst into the room and Yachi jumped in fright. He bowled into Suga and deeply inhaled into his silver hair. "You slept with him! You naughty minx!"

Suga flushed a deep crimson and huffed into the dramatic grasp. He _knew_ that the other household members were going to be able to smell the difference in his scent, but he wasn't prepared to explain himself. _Not yet...he wasn't exactly sure of what he was doing with Daichi, not to mention where the relationship was headed._

"Did-did someone hu-hurt you?!" Yachi stuttered in question, releasing a fresh scent of fear that began to sour the tea green room.

"No, no, Yachi don't worry! I let him!" Suga quickly replied with a smile and shook his hands out in front of him. "It was mutual, I promise."

"Of course you did! You two are in loveeee~~" Oikawa teased, poking him in the shoulder with his forefinger. "Loveeeeee birdssssss!"

"Hush, Oikawa, Stop being a pest."

"I'm not being a pest!"

"You...let him?" Yachi asked, gazing up at her nestmates with large, questioning eyes.

The two boys knelt down in unison and crawled over the covers towards her, embracing her with their calming scents.

"It was consensual, Yachi. He's a good guy.  _Daichi_...he's, um, he's a good Alpha," Suga reiterated, surprised to find himself truly believing the words. Perhaps, they would convince the blonde Omega that there _were_ good, protective Alphas out there-- _ones that wouldn't hurt her like Chaki had._

"Yachi! Why don't we bring him up here so you can see for yourself!" Oikawa proposed loudly with a sly wink. "They are good guys! The best of the best."

"Whaa-what?! Are you crazy!" Yachi squeaked and cowered beneath the covers once more.

Suga was unsure if they should push the girl, but he was certain that if they didn't intervene soon, she would never regain her old self. _Maybe...if she met a soft spoken Alpha like Daichi...or even Asahi...she would have a change of heart._

"Do you trust us, Yachi?" He asked as he gingerly pulled back the blankets to smile down at her. =

"Yes...always..."

While the response was not fully on board with the idea, Suga pushed forward anyways, pleased with her tiny show of bravery. "Then, I think that you should let us introduce you to a couple of the Alphas. Well, introduce you on more personal terms than when you met them the first day we got here. You know, to prove to you that they're they're well mannered guys. Plus, Oikawa and I will both stay right by your side the whole time!"

"What if they...what if they jump us?!"

Oikawa laughed at the _classic_ Yachi remark and ruffled her golden hair. "Oh, that won't happen! They're big softies. I can _personally_ guarantee that they would never jump such a cute little Omega," he replied with a sly wink. "Not on my watch!"

"Yachi, this might be hard for you to hear, but I'd like you to listen if you could," Suga added, pushing out a tranquil scent to calm her nervous energy.

"O-okay."

He took in a subtle breath and gave Oikawa a knowing look-- they had hidden their sexual assaults from her, not wanting to upset her any more than they had to. However, if they told her about the protective Alphas and how they had come to their rescue, then _maybe_ she would feel safe enough to, at the very least, leave the nesting room. It would be a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

"Oikawa and I were both assaulted by random Alphas this past week, but we were saved by the Alphas living in this house. They fought with our attackers, pulled us to safety, licked our wounds, and scented us to try and prevent it from happening again. My Alpha," he paused, catching the possessive words in his throat. "Um, the Alpha I've been _seeing_ has even suggested that we pair up the Omegas with an Alpha when we go outside the house. You know, for some extra protection."

"Even though I _hate_ to admit it...we've landed ourselves a good group of Alpha boys here~~" Oikawa added in with a vigorous and knowing nod. "Who could've guessed it?"

"Exactly. I think that if you give some of them a chance and allow us to introduce them, you'll be surprised. Maybe, you'll even feel safer knowing that they're guarding our nest," Suga finished with a beaming smile, feeling hopeful that his small nestmate might agree to the terms. 

Yachi was quiet for a moment and Oikawa pulled a pink felt blanket over her small shoulders to comfort her nervous figure. 

"You really think this is a good idea?" She finally whispered, at long last placing her trust in her nestmate's plan. 

"I do, my baby. I do," Suga replied, rubbing her back in small circles. "Truly, I think it's a good idea."

"Oikawa, you promise you'll stay beside me?" Yachi added in and he suppressed a chuckle at the remark-- _Oikawa was definitely the person he would want by his side if he was in a situation like this...he was basically the nest's personal Alpha._

"Of course, my little princess. At your side, not a problem~~"

"O-okay, then let's do it."

**Daichi~~**

Daichi mentally listed off the things Suga had lectured once more- project a calm scent at all times. Maintain self control. Do not give into instincts. Do not try to approach or touch her. All very basic things...well, basic now that he had personal experience with Omegas. He glanced over at Asahi, noting that his Alpha friend was also going over his own internal checklist.

"Ready?" He asked and he was granted a nod before the pair entered the Omega nest.

Daichi felt pangs of guilt radiate over him when he saw the shaking girl nestled between Suga and Oikawa. He hated that his _kind_  was responsible for damaging such a small and sweet person. He used to be proud of being an Alpha but now, he didn't even want to be associated with them. _If he ever came across this 'Chaki' boy he would…_

"Hello there!" Asahi interrupted his spiraling thoughts with a cheerful call. "I've heard so many wonderful things about you from Nishinoya!"

Daichi admired his Alpha friend- his calming scent was strong, much stronger than any scent he could hope to produce. "Hi, my name is Daichi," he added his own introduction with a somewhat awkward, yet gleeful wave.

"H-hello," came a squeaky reply and when Daichi heard the female Omega whisper 'is that the one' to Suga and he couldn't help but smirk to himself. .

"We haven't seen you around the house! Nishinoya told me that you feel safer in here. It's a pretty nice room, I get it," Asahi chimed in once more, eyes darting around the room, taking in its contents.

Yachi slowly nodded and Daichi noted that she was reacting quite positively to Asahi's experienced tranquil scent.

"I get that," Asahi continued with a knowing nod of agreement, stroking his goatee. "I feel safer in my room, too."

Daichi said nothing, in fact, he didn't feel like he had to. Asahi was the one with the Omega mother and he was clearly showcasing his experience- as the unofficial captain of their Alpha house, Daichi knew when to step aside and remain silent.

"Y-you do? I didn't know Alphas got scared…" Yachi piped up before cowering back at the loudness of her own voice.

"Oh all the time! Like if I see a scary movie, especially if it has spiders, I hate spiders. OH, or small spaces, heights, sunburns….." Asahi spewed out his train of thought and Daichi smirked to himself. The bunned giant looked frightening as all hell, but he was a the biggest softy he knew. "Basically anything that hurts me, breaking a bone, scraping my knees, bumping my head..."

 _Sensing that your Omega is in danger_ , Daichi thought to himself with frustration. He began radiating a subtle protective scent at the fleeting thought but thankfully, Yachi giggled at Asahi's monologue and he instantly relaxed into her soft, rosy fragrance.

"Yachi, these guys are on our side. And not just them either. All of the Alphas in this house are well-mannered. I promise," Suga said sweetly, purring in response to Daichi's protective scent.

"Yachi," the bunned Alpha started again, "may I call you that?"

"Y-yes."

"I want...no, we want you to feel comfortable in this house. It's your home as well as ours and we will do our best to make you feel accommodated. Accommodated in every room of this house, not just your nest, but the kitchen, the yard, the living room….where ever you want to go, we've got your back."

The scent of roses immensely increased until it was stifling all other fragrances in the tea green room. Asahi flashed a pleased smile and continued his verbal push, "what's your favorite thing for dinner?"

"Um...well, pancakes or waffles, especially ones with chocolate chips," the blonde Omega piped up with more confidence than Daichi thought possible of her.

"Suga, why don't you and Daichi go to the general store and pick up ingredients for a big breakfast dinner! We can even get a chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert!"

"The cake would be more for you than Yachi…" Daichi berated the Alpha playfully, hoping that a bit of verbal banter would give the timid Omega the final push she needed to break through her own defenses.

"So sue me! I like cake."

"You're going to get fat," Oikawa chimed in with a snarky remark that caused Daichi to burst into a gut-busting laugh.

"So mean!" Asahi whined, shaking his head in resignation.

When Yachi unleashed a quiet but genuine laugh, Daichi's heart soared in victory.

"I guess that would be okay…" She said with a timid smile that melted his insides. He wanted to protect her, perhaps not in the same way he wanted to protect Suga, but he certainly wasn't going to allow any Alpha to touch her without her expressed permission. His gaze flickered over to the silver Omega, happy to see a joyous smile plastered on the delicate features of his face, but Daichi knew that it was all thanks to Asahi.

**Oikawa~~**

Oikawa was more full than he had ever been in his entire life. Breakfast for dinner was something he had greatly missed-- Yachi would always make it for their nest when it was her week to cook. He and the other Omegas had been overjoyed when she joined them at the dining table. Their happy scents radiated throughout the house, positively influencing the moods of their Alpha housemates. It was one of the most peaceful evenings he had experienced in a very long time, even if his mind was still _slightly_ distracted by the unspoken confusion in his blossoming relationship with Hajime. 

The other Omegas, aside from Suga, nesting in with Daichi, had settled into their tea green room on the third floor. Most of the Alphas had retired to their rooms as well, succumbing to food comas in their own right, however, Oikawa did notice a strand of light creep out from under Tsukishima's door as he passed by. _As studious as always...emotionless and studious._

He  made his way up the second set of stairs towards the nest room, eager to rest his tired body-- still ample sore from the previous night's assault. Although Hajime had scented him earlier, and they had engaged in a rather steamy encounter, he was growing anxious with their lack of interaction since. Unsure of what to do, and thinking it best to utilize his usual tactic of avoidance, he decided to sleep in the Omega room. _He wasn't sure of Hajime's intentions...or his own....maybe it would be best to write the entire ordeal off as a one time occurrence-_ \- even if he truly wished that it wasn't.

As he rounded the corner of the dark hallway, a deep voice drew in his fleeting attention.

"Are you going to bed?"

He sluggishly turned on his heels, hesitant to partake in a conversation with the _one_ person he had actively decided to elude. He rolled his head back and sighed, then retraced his steps to the stairwell and glanced down to the second landing, eyes taking in the stocky, athletic build of Hajime.

"You know better than to sneak up on an Omega, Hajime~~" He chirped down to the pensive Alpha, cringing his nose slightly at the man's upset scent.

"Shittykawa tip. I know, I know," Hajime drawled out lazily, unable to hide the hurt from his voice. 

The response truly shocked Oikawa-- _he didn't think the Alpha had really absorbed his lectures._

"You gonna nest tonight?" The Alpha pushed forward, inviting him into a conversation he _really_ didn't want to have.

"I was thinking that I would…"

"How are your injuries? I can still smell them."

"Much better, thanks to you~~"

Hajime held his gaze, raking over his figure from a distance with dark, probing eyes and he grew increasingly uncomfortable with the unprovoked silence, fidgeting on his feet in the dark.

"I could lick them again...if you want," Hajime offered up after a few moments of silence, his face contorting with an uncomfortable tension at his own words.

Oikawa had hypothesized that the Alpha was unused to discussing his personal feelings, but the awkward remark definitely solidified the theory as fact.  _Well_ , he thought to himself with indignation,  _that made two of them._

"Are you offering to take care of me? How unexpected Mr. Alpha~~"

"Why do you have to turn everything into a chirp," the Alpha grumbled out in frustration, running a large hand through his short locks.

"Because, I like to see you squirm," Oikawa cheekily replied, casually leaning a shoulder against the wall of the hallway.

It was a lie, and he knew it, but he wasn't ready to show his cards to anyone, especially to a pensive Alpha like Hajime. _Or...perhaps more accurately...he wasn't exactly certain that he was emotionally stable enough to handle any sort of rejection._ He had baggage, lots of it, and he didn't know if Hajime could handle it-- or if he would still respect him after finding out about his past.

Hajime stepped forward and hiked himself up the stairs, much too slowly for his anxiously beating heart. When at last the Alpha stood before him, he flicked his shoulder, his throat rumbling in quiet irritation. 

"We need to talk. Let's go."

Oikawa sighed and nodded his head in resignation, sluggishly following Hajime down the dim hallway, towards his room.

**Hajime~**

Hajime had actively avoided Oikawa all day. When he had woken up earlier that the morning, the Omega had already left his bed, leaving him with an intense, cold feeling of rejection that quickly snaked its way into his soul. The simple action made him more upset than he cared to admit, even to himself, and it left him with a bundle of terrible, unanswered questions.  _Did Oikawa regret letting him scent him? Was he the only one who felt the intense connection? Had he done something wrong?_

Initially, he had intended to suppress his feelings for the entire matter, but they ate away at his thoughts throughout the day, demanding him to find some sort of reconciliation. After he had retired early from dinner, he stayed keenly alert in his room, listening and smelling for Oikawa's movements within the house through the open crack of his door. The moment he noticed the ocean fragrance waft by from the stairwell, he swiftly got up from his bed to follow it. After a brief and irritating exchange with the Omega, he decided to assert his dominance, demanding for the two of them to talk.  _Him...demanding to talk about his feelings..._ he never thought that he would see the day.

Hajime gently closed the door of his room then moved in front of the unusually quiet Omega. There were so many things they needed to discuss and he didn't have the slightest idea of where to start. He was still very, very new to the emotional discussion club, but the one thing he knew for certain was that he wanted everything sorted out--  _immediately_. The flurry of unanswered questions had left him feeling distressed, preventing him from maintaining his scent with his usual level of control. Even _Asahi_ had mentioned that he smelled off, a gross mixture of panic and confusion.

"Why did you leave?" He asked with an irritated growl, deciding to tackle the most pertinent of his problems first.

"What do you mean?" Oikawa replied, reflecting the conversation back with ease-- he was quickly learning that the chestnut boy was a king at emotional avoidance, _almost as good as he was._

"This morning. Why did you leave?"

"I-"

"Did you regret letting me scent you?"

"Hajime-"

"Did I hurt you," he pushed further, releasing a snarl at the implications of his own question.

"Stop interrupting me, Hajime~~" Oikawa sighed, running a hand through his soft hair in exasperation. "I don't regret it. I promise. But I...well...the assault…"

Hajime unleashed a deep, throaty rumble that that the Omega into a subtle flinch. He wanted to punch a hole in the wall. He didn't want to think about the previous day's events. _How could he protect Oikawa if he didn't return his affections? He couldn't be around him at all hours of the day...that was what scenting was for._

"Hajime," Oikawa said with an exasperated sigh, interrupting his unpleasant train of thought. "Stop growling and listen to what I have to say. Sometimes, after things like yesterday happen, I just need some time to myself. That's all it is."

"After. Things. Like. That. Happen." Hajime repeated, his instincts pushing their way to the forefront of his mind, deepening his voice with choppy responses. 

"Yes...after sexual assaults. Sometimes, I just need time to reset myself alone."

"You've been raped before," Hajime snarled out in near roar and clenched his fists, ready to throw a punch into the plaster of nearest wall. _Who the fuck touched his Omega. He was going to slaughter them. Bash through their skulls with his bare hands._

"Hajime, the life of an Omega is hard, you know~~" Oikawa chided, attempting to lighten the mood of the room with a playful quip.

"Who."

"Who what?"

"Who raped you before."

"I don't know! Young and stupid Alphas. I don't exactly keep track of them."

Hajime couldn't handle the conversation any longer, he needed the Omega in his arms. He had been hit with a sudden, overbearing need reassert to himself that Oikawa was still _alive_. That his heart was beating inside his chest. He swiftly closed the gap between them and pulled the chestnut boy into his arms, squeezing tightly around him as he blanketed their forms in a powerful, protective scent.

"Huh. You really don't like the fact that I've been touched by other Alphas," Oikawa whispered softly in his ear, purring against his neck. 

"No," Hajime growled in response, scenting him with vigor. "I don't like that you've been touched by other Alphas  _and_  against your will. You are  _mine. Mine._ "

"Well," Oikawa mumbled out against his chest, subconsciously flooding the room with a joyous, sea salty fragrance. "I'm not technically  _yours_  yet."

"You. Will. Be." Hajime managed to utter out, the instinct to fuck the Omega in his arms abruptly hitting him like a sack of bricks. "If. You. Allow."

It wasn't just a desire to fuck, but a desire to mate, as well. Anything within his power to better ensure Oikawa's safety. With the affectionate purrs against his neck and the clean, fresh scent of the air, he wanted to take the chestnut Omega then and there. However, he fought back against his darkening mind-- fearing that Oikawa's injuries, both mental and physical, were too great.

"You're losing yourself~~" He heard Oikawa chirp in sly tone, the usual banter doing well to snap him back to reality.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, nuzzling into the boy's chestnut hair. "I can't help it. Your smell. I want to fuck you...I don't want anyone else to touch you. But, even if you agreed...I don't want to hurt you. You're still too injured."

"Oh, hush. I can handle a little pain~" The chestnut Omega replied softly in his ear, then granted him a cheeky wink. 

At the sly admission, Hajime's instincts flooded back at full force, against his best wishes. "Are. Sure. Are. You. Sure," he growled, the words pouring out in a choppy, feral flurry. 

"If it's from you, I don't mind," Oikawa quietly affirmed, shimmying out of his loose grip. "Your scent has been driving me insane for days now...so...."

Hajime didn't need to hear anything more. Oikawa had admitted to being just as enraptured with his scent. _Mutual attraction_.  _Good enough,_  he mused through his cloudy instincts,  _sort out the emotional stuff later._  For now, he was going to dive head first into the same unchecked ecstasy he had felt the night before.

**Oikawa~**

"Take off your clothes and come here," Hajime commanded in a hushed whisper as he leaned back against the headboard, atop the grey covers.

Oikawa shivered at the tone of desire dripping off the words. He shimmied out of his light jeans and pulled his turquoise shirt over his head, as sensually as he could, then slowly crawled over the mattress towards the the waiting Alpha. Hajime spread his own legs apart, directing Oikawa with darkening eyes to lean back against his broad chest.

After leaning his naked back against the Alpha, Oikawa started to feel exposed-- more exposed than he had been in his entire life. Not necessarily in physical openness, he had been highly open to many partners in the past, but mentally exposed. Unlike his previous sexual encounters, he couldn't seem to roll back his lustful fragrance in Hajime's pretense. _The Alpha's feral scent was...all consuming and he had no way to escape it...did he even want to?_

"My, my, Omega…" Hajime gruffly whispered in his ear, pausing briefly to nibble of the sensitive scent glands beneath it. "Your cock is pierced. How about that."

Oikawa blushed a deep crimson and sheepishly turned away his head. He had never felt ashamed of the piercing before, but he was growing increasingly aware an innate desire within himself-- one that wanted to please the snarky Alpha. Perhaps, from the intense anxiety that was brewing inside of him, fearful of being abandoned.

Hajime grazed a large hand across his delicate neck and down to his exposed chest. "I like it," he whispered again, harshly twisting a pink nipple between his fingers. "Touch yourself, _Omega._  Show me how much control you have..."

Oikawa shivered against the Alpha's muscular chest, warmth pooling deep within his abdomen. Hajime's potent scent had grown in dominance, becoming so consuming that he could hardly stop his body from shaking in need. He slowly grazed a delicate hand down his abdomen and towards his glistening cock, already pulsing painfully against stomach. As he gingerly gripped around its slender girth, the world around him hummed to life, flooding his senses with arousal. Hajime released a low, thunderous growl as Oikawa's aroused fragrance burst out into the room, lacing itself into the sexual Alpha scent. 

As Oikawa methodically stroked his own length, his movements growing less cautious with each passing second, he suddenly realized that he had never had a partner like Hajime before. _There was something about his scent...something that made him go mad with...heat_. He had _never_ felt an intense desire to be knotted by an Alpha. _Until Hajime_. With Hajime, he _needed_ to be filled. Every fiber of his being was crying out for the dark Alpha, whining for physical contact with his tanned skin, his mouth, his tongue, and his member. 

As Oikawa neared his climax, aided by the feeling of the Alpha's hard, lengthy member pushing against his back, Hajime snarled into his ear to stop his hand in place. 

"Don't you dare come."

At the feral challenge, he loosened his grip, nodding his head through blurry vision. He wanted a release _so_ badly, but he wanted to be knotted more.

"Please, Alpha. Please. I can't...I can't take it…I can't..."

Hajime relinquished his attention from Oikawa's now swollen nipples and lowered his hand down to his overworked cock. Lazily, he drew a forefinger up its swollen length, pausing to gently flick the mental bar embedded in the head.

Oikawa moaned out, shuddering his sweaty back against Hajime's covered chest as electric sparks shot through his naval. He needed to feel the Alphas skin against his own, but he was quickly learning that Hajime liked to be the one in control. Oikawa didn't mind the Alpha's dominance. In fact, he found himself in a state of aroused anticipation, waiting to see what would happen next.

"You look so gorgeous like this. Slumped against me. Soaking my sheets with your sex. Panting for me," Hajime growled into his ear and grazed over his piercing once more, then gingerly gripped his small balls."Doing your best not to come without my knot..."

Oikawa gasped, barely pulling back his orgasm, and quickly released his tight grip on his cock, shaky hands hovering just inches from it He couldn't touch himself any further, one more stroke, and he would come. When Hajime grazed his tongue over his open scent glands and gave his balls a playful squeeze, his eyes clamped shut in concentration. It was taking everything he had to keep himself under control, and now, he was so close to release that he couldn't even bear to look at the scene before him.

"Please, Alpha...I c-can't. I-I can't hold out..." He whimpered as he slumped back further into Hajime's sensual embrace, quivering with need.

"Neither can I," Hajime replied with a feral snarl that kicked his unchecked arousal into overdrive. Instinctively, he lurched forward, arching his back into the covers to present himself.

_He needed to be filled...not by just anyone...he needed Hajime...he was going to go mad._

 

Hajime clamored on top of him, pinning their sweaty forms against the soft mattress. As Oikawa's stomach was pushed down into the soft mattress, a large hand grabbed under his chin and forced his head roughly to the side. His mouth was abrupty claimed by the Alpha, nipping and snarling at his swollen lips. He _loved_ Hajime's raw, instinctual power-- it blanketed his form, tossing his mind into a chaotic ecstasy of hot fire. While he had never _truly_ had consensual sex, he was certain the roughness suited his tastes- for Hajime had also proved to be cautious and caring in his lovemaking.

When he felt large fingers burrow into his delicate hips, raising his ass into the air, he gladly arched his back into the bed and shook his hips.

"Knot me, Alpha. PLEASE!" He cried out in frustration when Hajime didn't immediately push into him. He glanced over his shoulder and raised his ass higher, imploring the Alpha with chocolate eyes. "H-Hajime, I can't take another second of this. Please. PLEASE!"

**Hajime~**

"H-Hajime, I can't take another second of this," Oikawa whined at him, glancing over his shoulder with foggy eyes and parted pink lips, drawing in subtle gasps for air. 

It was taking everything Hajime had to not thrust aggressively into the small, perfect ass before him. After rushing to pull off his remaining clothing, he paused to admire the the Omega siren before him-- his slender thighs slick from pleasure and his small cock looked painfully ready to burst.

"I. Will. Hurt. You." He managed to snarl out as he fought against his feral nature-- it hadn't been his intention to fuck the chestnut boy, he was still too injured. However, somewhere along the playful foreplay, and he wasn't exactly sure when, he had lost himself in Oikawa's all consuming fragrance.

"Pleaaase," came another lustful whine, his delicate hand reaching back back to grab at Hajime's thick cock.

When his slender fingers made contact, he attempted to direct it into his wet hole, but Hajime roughly grabbed his wrist and pinned it forward into the covers. Leaning his weight over the Omega's delicate form he snarled in threat, his scent encapsulating their forms with his dominant energy. 

"I fuck _you_. You don't fuck _me_."

Oikawa's head furiosly nodded in understanding and he rocked his hips back, purring with pleasure at the aggressive words. Hajime refused to comply with Oikawa's entrancing action and instead reached beneath his hips to tug at his delicate cock, one final time. As he played with the small metal balls, the chestnut boy bucked his hips, trying to escape his methodical grip.

"PLEASE."

"Do you want me to fuck you," he growled, ignoring the frantic plea that already answered his question. "Do you want my knot?"

"P-please, H-hajime!" Oikawa stuttered out as Hajime expertly kept his orgasm just out of reach.

"Answer the question."

"YES. PLEASE FUCK ME. FILL ME!" The Omega cried out with a loud, instinctual whine of need, gnashing his fingers into the grey covers in frustration. "I CAN'T TAKE IT!" 

Hajime smirked at the desperate response, then received a painful reminder of the boy's injuries as he sat back on his haunches. While Oikawa's sex was _beyond_ slick, it still retained tears and now scarring bite marks on his cheeks. Hajime's throat rumbled in aggitation and he internally reminding himself to _never_ treat Oikawa in such a harsh manner. Had it not been for his overwhelming arousal, he would have lost himself to another fit of unchecked rage at the sight. He shook his head, and lined up his swollen cock, pausing to softly graze a hand over the damaged skin. 

"I. will. _never_. hurt. you. like. this." He snarled as he thumbed over a white, raised scar, receiving a loud purr in response.

He still felt ample tinges of remorse looking at the injured state of Oikawa's awaiting sex, but it wasn't enough to stop his instincts. They were clouding his mind with their screeching desire. In one swift movement, he pushed his cock into the soaked hole, causing the Omega to gasp out in ecstasy, his flushed face buried in the comforter. Thrusting out of sheer, untapped pleasure, Hajime lowered his body down to graze hips lips along Oikawa's pale shoulder blades-- he needed the Omega to know that he desired every single part of him. _His lips. His sex. His sensual, intoxicating fragrance. Everything._

After an eternity of feral euphoria, gladly drowning in a sea of Oikawa's hyper-aroused fragrance, Hajime felt his cock swell into an early knot.

"Stay. Still." He growled into the Omega's ear, internally praying that his large knot would leave the fresh wounds in tact. "Knotting. Stay. Still."

As his member swelled, Oikawa's hole stretched to accommodate his growing girth. He pulled the Omega towards him by the neck and bit down hard on the pale flesh of his shoulder-- _an instinctual act, claiming what was his._ Drawing a small amount of blood, he hurried to lick up the tender flesh to ensure a quick heal. Then, he nipped up the soft skin of Oikawa's neck to the line of his jaw, inhaling the ocean fragrance in full. For a brief moment, they made eye contact and Hajime lost himself in Oikawa's hazel eyes-- cloudy with pain and pleasure.  _Soon...soon it will only be pleasure,_ he thought as he claimed the chestnut boy's swollen lips with his own. When the potent mixture of their aroused scents finally overtook his mind, his knot erupted into the warm confines of Oikawa's sex. When the Omega released a happy sigh against his chest and relaxed back against him, he allowed his own feelings of satisfaction to pour out. _He didn't hurt Oikawa...and maybe...this time...he wouldn't wake up to an empty bed._

The moment he slipped his shrinking cock out Oikawa's full sex, Haijme scooped the slender boy into his arms and sat back against the headboard of the bed, laying the exhausted Omega against his exposed chest.

"Did I hurt you," he asked after his own panting had subsided, rubbing his scent glands over the chestnut locks.

"It hurt, but not because of you," Oikawa purred in response, happily accepting his Alpha scent.

Although he was incredibly angry that  _his_ Omega was subject to pain on his behalf, he was pleased that he had done enough to counter it with pleasure.

"Lie forward. I need to lick your wounds. I probably reopened some of them."

"Okay, but only because I want them healed so we can do this again. Without restraint."

"Oh, it's going to happen again. You're going into heat in," Hajime paused to sniff into Oikawa's soft, sweaty hair. "Eleven days. Less than two weeks."

"How forward of you, Hajime. Already thinking that we're going to mate~~" Oikawa chirped back as he moved down his back to lick the scratches along his hips. 

"You don't want to?" He genuinely asked back, shoving down a sudden spike of fear at the thought of losing the chestnut boy.

"No, I just don't think you could keep up! My heat has been known to last for four days, it's quite a record~~"

"Four days of fucking you? Not a problem."

"I guessssss we'll find out~~"


	8. Ice Cold Omega

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Trigger Warning**
> 
> Okay, so I am preemptively posting this chapter because I have had a looooooong day at work and want to get a bit of the story out before I go to sleep. I can guarantee that there are spelling mistakes and I’ll probably go back and edit a bit more of this tomorrow :)
> 
> I am trying to self motivate to get this damn arc done so we can get on to the content I like better. Only 7 (hopefully) more chapters to go until we get there!
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and commenting guys, it's HUGE.
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Eight: Ice Cold Omega**

**Keiji~**

_Mondays were the worst. Back to back literature classes from 11:00am until 7:30pm, with no time for so much as a lunch break._ Keiji lightly scratched at the scent supressor patch on his shoulder-- at least the weather was somewhat mild. He never did enjoy the blistering heat of late summer.

As usual, he went about his classes without any trouble. The Alphas on campus were known to whistle or holler at their Omega counterparts, but they rarely dared anything more aggressive during school hours-- there was too much security lurking about during the daytime. However, the University security was known to occasionally turn a blind eye on violent acts, but Alpha students seemed to maintain a general mentality that it was not worth the risk. Moreover, Keiji was confident enough in his ability to suppress his scent that he didn't mind walking alongside them on campus, rather than skirting about in the shadows as most other Omegas did. It was a talent that he had developed after the... _incident_...the only good thing that had come out of it.  _Well,_  he thought to himself as he half-listened to his philosophy lecture,  _that wasn't entirely true_.

Now that he could completely reign in his scent, he was comfortable enough to sign up for evening classes. S _tupid knotheads,_  as he liked to call his fellow Alpha students, didn't utilize their eyes and instead relied on their sense of smell to identify people.

As he packed up his school work from the oak desk in front of him, he glanced down at his blue wrist watch and noted the time. Nearly 8:30pm, his last class had run late and he had lost a lot of time going over his notes. After adjusting his headphones over his ears, he briskly walked down the now empty halls of the Humanities Building, his home away from home. Rounding the last flight of stairs to the main floor, he was hit with a sudden, strong scent of Omega fear that nearly made him keel over with nausea. He shook his head and yanked his phone out of the front pocket of his dark jeans, adjusting the volume of his music-- a futile attempt to distract himself from the sickly sweet fragrance.

 _Whatever it was, it wasn't his problem. It really wasn't his problem,_ he repeated in mantra as he pushed on towards the front entrance of the building. However, as he neared the doors, he quickly found his legs frozen in place with one hand fixed on the brass handles of the exit. Images of Oikawa and Suga flickered across his mind's eye, taunting him to take action. His nestmates wouldn't care that the scared Omega was unknown to them, they were always unnecessarily reckless. _Fuck,_ he thought to himself with indignation,  _getting involved was going to be such a pain._

He stood stalled in place for a few more moments, then let out a heavy sigh of frustration at the unwanted situation. Pulling off his headphones, he hung them around his neck and briskly turned on his heels to retrace his steps-- following the unhappy fragrance towards the back exit of the building. Upon nearing the source of the upset, he took note of two growling Alphas beyond the heavy copper doors and the potent smell of a very anxious Omega. A female, if he was not mistaken. He sighed again, wishing that all Omegas could reign in their scents as well as he could, but unfortunately, it was not an ability that could be taught. He had tried, and failed, many times with Shoyo.

He gingerly dropped his brown rucksack to the marble floor beside the doors and reached inside its main pocket, pulling out a silver bottle of Alpha spray. He had always been rather lousy at fighting, he didn't have the experience that Oikawa retained, and he was certainly not as good at projecting a calm scent, like Suga. However, he did have _one_ weapon in his arsenal-- scent suppression. At the very least, he could find a way to use it against a couple of nasty Alphas and protect a fellow Omega in need.  _It's what they would do,_ he mused before quietly slipping through the copper doors.

Upon entering the back laneway between the tell, brick buildings, he quickly scanned the scene before him. A pair of Alphas stood a few meters away, cornering a very small, black haired girl against a stone wall. One of them, the larger of the pair with the more domineering scent, roughly held the Omega's arm above her head while the other egged him on with a series of lustful growls. He was pleased when that the two _knotheads_  failed to smell his presence. _Good._ If he could get close enough, perhaps he could incapacitate them long enough with his spray for both he and the girl to make a clean getaway.

He did his best to creep up on the scene from behind, paying extra care to ensure that his steps were as silent as possible on the dark pavement. As he closed in on the smaller Alpha, his plan was interrupted-- the small girl noticed him in her line of sight and let out a squeal of renewed fear at his presence. He clenched his jaw and inwardly cursed himself-- _he hadn't accounted for the her thinking that he was another Alpha. He was lacking an Omega scent._

"Just a second, buddy. You can have her after we are..." The smaller alpha started, changing his tune when he glanced over his broad shoulder and noticed Keiji's small form. "You...wait...you're...are you an Omega? Man, that Alpha spray _really_ gave you away! Bad luck," he growled with a nasty chuckle that made Keiji's skin perk up with eerie goosebumps.

"Bad luck, indeed," he replied through clenched teeth, tightening his grip on his silver bottle. "I still got the spray, though."

"Aw. And here I was hoping that you came out here because you wanted a quick lay," the Alpha cooed, flashing a cheeky wink his way. "Oi, Sora. This one is mine. You can have the girl."

"Yeah, sure. He's all yours," the other Alpha,  _Sora,_  drawled lazily over his shoulder, then pushed his stocky body against the quivering girl, pinned against his chest.

"Mmm, no thank you," Keiji seethed, unsure of where his sudden surge of confidence came from. "I prefer that my Alphas have a more dominant scent than the pathetic ones that you guys are seeping out."

"What did you say, you little brat," the smaller Alpha hissed, taking a step towards him as his domineering scent coiled into the evening air.

 _What did he say? Why on earth was he taunting them? Did he have a death wish?_ He could very well have fled the scene and left the Omega to defend herself-- he didn't even know her! However, for some reason that was beyond him, he felt a growing need to protect her-- to create an opening for her to escape unnoticed.

"Jesus, are you guys deaf too? I _said_ that you both have the most pathetic scents I've ever smelled in my life. I thought you guys were Omegas!" He continued his patronizing, internally praying that his snarky words would be enough to pull the other Alpha's attention away from the girl.

"You. Little. _Slut_. I will show you who the Omega is here," Sora snarled, dropping the girl from his grasp to line himself alongside his Alpha friend, in opposition to Keiji. 

 _Perfect,_  Keiji thought to himself, shooting a knowing look at the Omega, _take the damn opening, stupid!_  The small girl briefly hesitated, then bolted from the scene without another look. Happy to see her gone, he stood his ground and held his spray higher up in front of him. He had been so focused on creating an opening for her that he didn't think about his own escape plan. 

Sora sniffed the air and gave him a wry smirk. "You don't even smell like an Omega..." He snarled, stretching his long arms up towards the orange sky. "But, now I can see it. Your build gives it away. You're so small. So _fraaaaagile_. I'm going to fuck you twice for helping that cute little Omega escape."

Keiji took a moment to assess the situation, but kept his navy eyes locked on the Alphas before him. The door to the Humanities Building was four meters behind, and ahead were the back laneways of the campus buildings--  _not a good escape plan_. Running back into the building was a better idea. Even if it was empty, he knew its layout like the back of his hand. He spent more of his waking hours there than he did in the yellow house.

When the two men began to creep forward, crouching over in an Alpha stalking formation, he made his move. He heavily sprayed the air between him and his opponents, then threw the can with as much force as he could muster at the larger Alpha. Next, he sharply turned on his heels and shoved his way back through the coppers doors, hastily grabbed his knapsack, and bolted down the dark hallway. As he ran, he wrestled the brown bag over his narrow shoulders and bee-lined into the stairwell, jogging up the stairs two at a time. He could hear the heavy footsteps and panting of the Alphas on his tail, but he tuned them out. He needed to think. 

_The roof had no exit...the fourth floor had ample rooms to hide...but did he really want to wait them out? It would be safer to flee to a more public place...the seventh floor...it had easy access to a fire escape...yes._

Bursting through the stairwell doors of the seventh floor, he slowed his pace as he passed the building's sole elevator and furiously pushed the button as a backup plan. When he rounded the northwest corner of the dark halls, the echoing calls of the two Alphas on his tail reached his ears. He increased his pace, pushing his body to its limits, and led his followers in a rapid pursuit, doing his best to lose them in the connected hallways of the building that he knew so well. When at last he passed by the fire escape, a feeling of dread knotted inside his gut-- its access window was shut and opening it would shave too much time off of his precious lead. His heart didn't have time to sink any further at the realization. Instead, his logical mind rang true, commanding him to resort back to his backup plan.

He continued his sprint down the tiled corridor until he arrived back at the elevator. His timing had been perfect, it was the stroke of luck he needed. He rushed inside its red-carpeted confines, pushed the glowing _M_ , and then mashed his fingers against the _close_ button. Only when he saw the doors shut out the panting, snarling faces of his Alpha pursuers, did he let out a sigh of relief at his narrow escape.

As the pleasant elevator music rang out, a stark contrast to reality, he took a minute to compose himself. While he was pleased with himself for outsmarting the two knotheads with his convoluted plan, his emotions quickly shifted to irritation when he noticed his own heavy musk of fear. Staying his shaking hands, he wiped the sweat from his brow and adjusted his backpack over his tired shoulders. When at long last the elevator let out an audible _ding_ and the doors opened to the main floor, he tentatively stepped out, first peaking around the metal corner at the long hallway towards the building's entrance. 

_No Alphas in sight...they would not be far behind...the buggers were fast._

He poured his remaining energy into one last sprint towards the exit, but was bowled over by a heavy body that knocked the wind out of him. Lady luck decided to only bless him once.

"Man, what a CHASE!" Sora snarled into his face after securing his position atop of Keiji's smaller form, bony knees digging into his shoulders. The large Alpha quickly pinned his wrists above him, hard against the cold, tiled floor, and his face contorted with discomfort as a hard cock ground against his soft stomach. "You almost had us for a second there, but we're both on the track team. Too bad Omegas can't join. You're _fast_."

"That is unfortunate," he drawled, forcing himself to maintain eye contact-- he was not going to give them the satisfaction of his fear. Judging by their interactions with the female Omega, these two Alphas seemed to get off on it.  _Deviants._

"I wonder if we can fit _two_ knots inside him! He certainly deserves it," he heard the other Alpha chime in from a few feet away and his heart sank at the disgusting chirp.

 _Deserves it? For what? For running away? For standing up against their shitty actions?_ He rolled his eyes and gently leaned his head back against the marble tile, losing his internal fire to stare down his attacker. 

_The world was such an unfair and ridiculous place._

"I couldn't agree more. He looks like he's got a tight ass. It'll probably hurt a bit," Sora growled low with a smirk and leaned in close to his face, this time baring white teeth that blasted him with putrid breath. "Look at me!" His attacker continued in sharp command, roughly grabbing his face to slap it.

Disorienting stars flickered across Keiji's tired mind at the harsh impact.  _Why was he being hit? He wasn't fighting back._ He didn't have the will to even bother to try. His body was limp with resignation to his fate-- fucking a lifeless corpse was his own, personal form of self defense. At the very least, it would give them less satisfaction in their assault.

As Sora clawed at his shirt, he heard an unfamiliar growl ring out into the silent air. He did not recognize the source of the sound, but he did recognize the scent _._

_Or at least...something familiar lingering within the unknown scent._

"I would get off of him if I were you."

His attacker paused and shifted his weight atop Keiji's shoulders to glance over at the source of the new voice.

"If you want to join in-"

"Get off him. Now," the unknown Alpha snarled again, much more viciously than before. Then, he released a dominant scent that made Keiji shiver done to his bones.

_Why did it smell so familiar? He couldn't quite put his finger one it..._

"Hey man we just ran our asses off to-"

"Last. Warning."

At the hostile command, Sora sluggishly rose to his feet-- as if he had all but forgotten that Keiji was exhausted and lying beneath him in defeat. Keiji briefly contemplated making a move to run, but his muscles were screaming at him to stay in place and his mind wanted more time to ascertain the situation.  _Who was this unknown Alpha? Was he hostile? Was he trying to dominate the others so that he could fuck him?_  As he analyzed from his vulnerable position on the tile, the Alphas continued their spat.

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto was comfortably seated outside of the Humanities Building, attention fully absorbed with the video on his phone, when he smelled something... _off._  He tore his gaze from the flickering images and sniffed the air. A _n Omega? No._ It was too mild, unlike any Omega he had ever smelled before. _But the fear...it was definitely there...and that type of fear didn't come from Alphas._  

He shook his head and willed himself to ignore the confusing scent, fingering the screen of his phone to rewind what he had missed. It wasn't until he heard a audible crash and a fresh wave of Alpha aggression that he decided to enter the building and check it out. _He was always down for a good brawl._

Shoving his phone in his back pocket, he sent out a silent prayer that it wouldn't break during the potential fight. Then, he hiked up the stone steps and entered the brick building, vibrating in anticipation for a brawl. After his yellow eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he noticed three figures half way down the long hall-- one standing and two twisted together on the ground. The entangled pair on the tile didn't seem to be fighting. In fact, one of the Alphas, and he was absolutely certain that it was Alpha, had the other, smaller boy, pinned beneath him. Bokuto sniffed the air once more, but found himself unable to ascertain just _what_ exactly the smaller figure was. His scent was.. _.too confusing._ Fearful like an Omega would be, but lacking the underlying fragrance of one. However, he _did_ smell something that flared up his instincts and pulled them forward to claw at the forefront of his mind. The smaller figure had Daichi's scent, and not just Daichi's, either, but Tobio's and Tanaka's as well. It was mild, but it was most definitely there. 

_Bokuto was sure of it._

He jogged towards the scene, growing even more angry as the scent of his teammates grew more prominent with each step. "I would get off of him if I were you," he barked, his snarls echoing down the bare hallway. 

"If you want to join in..." The Alpha, resting atop the smaller boy growled back, rearing his head to the side to face him. 

"Get off him," he barked out with another growl, this time baring white teeth. 

_The Alphas...they were weak...pitiful scents._

"Hey man we just ran our asses off to-"

"Last. Warning," he snarled, unconsciously unleashing a powerful scent of white hostility-- he had lost his patience. _He wanted the Alpha off the other boy. Now._

He took a step forward and abruptly knocked the standing Alpha in the face, causing a whimper of resignation to escape the man's lips. The larger Alpha began a slow rise from the small boy and paused half way, unsure of whether or not to engage in combat with a larger, more dominant Alpha. For a brief moment, Bokuto hoped that he would. _Two on one...they had the advantage...it would be a fun fight._ However, his thoughts on the matter quickly changed when his gaze flickered over to the frozen boy on the floor. His instincts reeled up again, bashing around inside his head with commands.  _Protect. The. Boy._

"Leave. Now," he growled, startled by the furious, threatening tone of his own words. _Ensure safety_ , his feral nature coiled out their desires, _ensure the boy is unharmed._

"Fine, man," the larger Alpha conceded, eyeing him down with angry, narrow eyes. "At least, fuck him hard for us. He gave us a run for our money."

Bokuto let out one final possessive snarl as the two Alphas exited the building before turning his sights back to the confusing boy that remained behind. _He hadn't moved from his position on the tile...was he injured? Wait,_ he mused with wide eyes, _what exactly was this kid?  His s_ _cent was...well...there was no scent._ Only a fleeting fragrance of fear and the smell of his Alpha teammates lingered on the boy's milky skin.

After a few silent moments, he took a hesitant step forward, curiosity getting the best of him. 

"Are you okay?"

"..."

At the silence, he cautiously closed the distance between them and noticed that the closer he got, the smaller the boy looked. He wasn't very tall and his build was far too fragile for an Alpha. Bokuto craned his neck forward and lightly sniffed the air. It was very subtle, but he could pick up on an Omega fragrance of... _metal and ice._

"Listen, I'm not going to fuck you, so would you get up already?" He said sternly, growing tired of looking at the small Omega's lifeless form on the tile. For reasons he had yet to understand, it made him feel incredibly guilty. 

"Are you sure," came a monotone response that sent pangs of stabbing sympathy through his beating heart. He had never felt  _anything_  towards Omegas, other than the instinct to fuck, but the sad scene before him-- seeing the eager Alphas trying to take advantage of such a fragile person-- it made his instincts flare up with a vengeful rage.

"Yes! I'm sure, Jeeesus!" He whined, shoving down his unwanted fury and an odd urge to release a protective growl. He ran a large hard through his black and silver hair in an attempt to alleviate stress. "Christ, will you just get up already? I'm not going to do anything! Look, I'll stay over here, okay?"

"Okay," the Omega lazily replied and slowly rose to his feet, adjusting his navy shirt over his small frame.

"Yo. Do you live with Daichi and Tobio?" Bokuto questioned, watching intently as the boy reached for his backpack and shoved its scattered contents back inside.

He really _was_ gorgeous-- ivory skin, jet black hair, and dark, narrow eyes. Bokuto had to admit, the sight of him was pleasing to look at, but it was his smell, a mild icy fragrance, that really stirred up something deep inside of Bokuto's gut.

"Yes," the Omega gave another monotone response and Bokuto nearly flinched back at its undertone of hostility.

"Ah, so that's why I could smell them on you."

"Probably."

"Sooooooo, who were those guys?" He couldn't help himself from asking, he wanted the Omega to tell him that he had known the eager Alphas. That they were all just messing around. That the entire ordeal was nothing to worry about-- but in his gut, he knew that it was far from the case. 

"Some knotheads who corned another girl out back. I don't know them."

 _Okay,_ he thought to himself with a frustrated sigh,  _so it wasn't a friendly affair. Of course it wasn't. Don't be stupid, Bokuto._

"Annnnnnnnnnd, why were they were chasing you?" He pushed with a throaty growl, unhappy with the boy's response-- it had shattered his unrealistic hopes.

"Because I stupidly decided to stand up to them," the boy droned in response, swinging his backpack over his delicate shoulder and at long last, meeting Bokuto's gaze.

His eyes were dark, but in better lighting, Bokuto was certain that they were gunmetal blue and they held a deep seated sense of resolve that stalled his breath in his throat.

"Good for you I guess…" He hurried to reply, doing his best to prevent his angry scent from seeping out at the sight of a nasty bruise on the boy's pale cheek.

 _He didn't know that Omegas were jumped on campus...actually...had he ever really thought about it?_ Most of the time he, like most Alphas, did their best to ignore them. _Was_ n't _security_ _supposed_ _to_ _prevent_ _this_ _shit_ _from_ _happening?_ He had to admit that he didn't exactly have a lot of experience with his fellow Omega students, but he did know how security was supposed to work.

"Thanks for your help," the Omega said quietly with feigned gratitude, averting his gaze in disinterest.

"Hey man I just saved-" Bokuto started to complain, but was immediately cut short with another hostile remark.

"It was under control."

"I don't think-"

"It was under control," the boy reiterated over his shoulder as he walked out of the Humanities Building, shutting the copper door behind him with an audible _thud_.

Bokuto subconsciously followed, sniffing the air as he walked towards the entrance. _Ice and metal--_ he wanted to smell more of it.

_Much more of it._

"HEY!" He called down the steps, happy to see that the loudness of his voice had stalled the Omega in his tracks in the evening sun.

"What?" The Omega replied without turning around and Bokuto couldn't help but admire how his small shoulders raised up in a sigh of frustration.

"I should probably walk you home, eh?"

"That's not necessary," came another salty reply with a subtle scent of irritation.

Although Bokuto didn't enjoy the bitter part of the Omega's grumpy fragrance, he _loved_ that it was also accompanied with his natural scent. 

 _So, the kid did have emotion after all, he_ thought cheerfully as he jogged down the long stone steps of the Humanities Building. 

"Well, just to be sure, you never know!"

"Fine," the Omega resigned and renewed his walk towards the edge of campus.

Bokuto hurried forward, jogging to catch up-- the scentless Omega had caught his interest.

**Keiji~**

Keiji could feel the Alpha's burning curiosity radiating out from behind him. It was nearly all-consuming, not necessarily in scent, but in aura. The owl-looking boy had an intense energy that was immensely draining, especially after the long and exhausted chase he had just experienced. 

"Would you reign that in?" He called over his shoulder at his unwanted follower. "It's exhausting."

"Reign _what_ in?!"

"Your scent. I can smell you analyzing me. Stop it."

"You can smell THAT?"

"Yes. So stop it."

"Heeeeeeeey, how come I can't smell you very well?"" The Alpha chimed in again, abruptly changing the subject.

Keiji ignored the shiver that ran up his spine at the words, _very well._ _Normally, Alphas couldn't smell him at all..._

"What do you mean?" He questioned, genuinely wanting to know the answer. _He obviously needed to do some correcting on his scent control, as soon as possible._

"Well, like, normally you can smell an Omega from ten, no, like, _five_ feet away. With their scent supressor patches on. But I have to be likeeeeee, twoishhhhhh feet away to smell your scent," the Alpha replied and, much to Keiji's irritation, sniffed the air near his head as he did so.

Keiji was disturbed by the response and also rattled by the sudden invasion of his personal space. _The day's events must have disrupted his ability to handle his own scent. Yeah, that was definitely it,_  he mused and let out a subtle puff of air to relax his anxious mind.

"Do you have a new type of patch on or something?" The owl asked, attempting to answer his own question.

"I'm good at reigning in my scent," Keiji replied after a few moments of contemplation. He had decided that he owed the owl boy at least a _snippet_ of information, in return for his help against the nasty Alphas. Plus, he could tell that the Alpha was only asking out of genuine interest-- a rare occurrence among Alphas. They were normally too self-centered to care about Omega things. 

"WOW! I didn't know you guys could do that!?" His follower exclaimed, running in front to eye him down with yellow, owl-like eyes. He placed his large hands on Keiji's slender shoulders to stop him in place on the sidewalk. "Can you teach me how to do that!? That's so sick!" 

Keiji brushed the Alpha's hands from his body in irritation, doing his absolute best to ignore the spark of energy he had felt from the touch.

" _Why_ would an Alpha need to reign in their scent. That's stupid."

The owl let out a maniacal laugh at his snarky response, then started walking once again, this time in front of him. He couldn't help but admire the man's broad shoulders, working under his navy shirt with every stride. He cursed himself for staring and shook his head-- he was not about to fall for his _savior_. _That was so cliche._

"I guess you're right. It was a stupid question~" The owl stated plainly, still laughing at his own previous remark. "I just haven't really thought about the inner workings of Omegas before now, I guess."

"Yeah, it shows. Clearly you don't know a lot of things about us. Like the fact that it's rude to touch or smell us without consent," Keiji quipped back in a tone that held more anger than he intended. When the talkative Alpha remained silent, he furrowed his brows in confusion. "Are you pouting?" He asked, his voice a combination of irritation and genuine concern.

"No…" The owl seethed back, his sour tone making it abundantly clear that he was _indeed_ pouting.

Keiji suppressed a laugh. He was... _amused._  The Alpha had proven himself as a dramatic and humourous character in a matter of minutes.

"You are pouting!" He drawled back saucily, feeling an overwhelming need to poke fun at the grumbling boy.

Then, he had a sudden realization that shocked him-- he could playfully chirp this Alpha without fear of physical retaliation. The owl might pout at his snarky remarks, but he wouldn't attack him for them.

"Keiji!" A familiar voice penetrated his startling thoughts. _Suga_.

He hadn't even noticed their arrival at the yellow house-- the long walk had just slipped by. He glanced towards the source of the sound and noticed his silver haired nestmate seated on the front steps of the porch, next to Daichi. _Oh, they were definitely a pair now. If he couldn't smell it, which he could anyways, then he most certainly could see it._

"Hey, Suga," he called to his Omega friend, granting him with a lazy wave. He had to stifle a chuckle when he felt the owl jump beside him, started by the loudness of his call. 

"What happened?" Daichi barked across the lawn, in more statement than question. "What happened to your face."

The level-headed captain's geniune concern for Suga's entire flock greatly amused Keiji. His silver nestmate had mentioned that a few of the Alphas were feeling a new instinct-- one that was translated into something along the lines of, _protect the pack._ The idea seemed absolutely preposterous to him until that very moment. A moment in which he watched the captain swiftly cross the lawn to roughly grab the owl boy by the front of his shirt. Keiji was taken aback when he was suddenly hit with Daichi's scent. It coiled into his nostrils, shocking him with its protective nature-- protective overhim. As he stood there, stunned on the sidewalk in front of the yellow house, he barely registered the two Alphas next to him-- still snarling in each other's faces.

 _Daichi had succumbed to his protective instincts...for him...an Omega...that he had no familial or friendly bond with! An Omega that he wasn't mated with!_  It was the most bizarre thing Keiji had ever experienced-- perhaps, Suga wasn't blowing the _protective_ story out of proportion.

"Bokuto. Was. It. You." Daichi snarled into the owl's surprised face, jerking Keiji from his internal stupor of contemplation. 

_Bokuto...the Alpha who saved him...his name was Bokuto._

Before Bokuto had the chance to respond, Asahi burst through the front door and crossed the lawn to line himself up next to his bristling captain. When he unleashed his own defensive snarl and domineering fragrance, Keiji's blue eyes widened in astonishment. He subtly sniffed the air, only to find the Alpha scents swirling together, mixing into something new. Something more powerful. _Protect...pack?_ _Okay, now he was a believer._

When a third growl joined the fray, he glanced back to the front yard to find Hajime's bristling figure, positioned a few feet away on the grass. The snarky Alpha stood, dominant and resolute, adding his own scent to the melting pot around them. _Really? Another one?_ Keiji couldn't help but smile at the _ridiculous_ situation. The minute the conflict was settled, he was going to talk to Suga about the strange happenings.

"Keijiiiiiiiiiiii~~ What happened to your face!" Oikawa called out to him from the porch, hopping over the railing with a _stupid_ amount of grace.

Keiji couldn't even manage a response, he was too busy with his internal analysis of the situation around him. He watched on with growing curiosity as Hajime immediately moved to stand in front the chestnut Omega, but Oikawa continued forward without a second thought. At his ignorance, Hajime's snarls and defensive fragrance grew more ferocious-- making his possession of Oikawa known to Bokuto.

_Another pair that wasn't far from mating..._

"Not. Me." Bokuto finally managed to utter out though gnashed teeth. "I. Defend. Him."

Keiji had completely forgotten about the owl. He should probably help the poor Alpha out-- the man  _did_ helped him out of a tough situation earlier. If he threw the owl a bone, they would be even, and he could put the entire ordeal to rest forever.

"LIAR. You reek of _his_ scent," Asahi roared back, but didn't take a step forward and Keiji was grateful for the his hesitation-- wise enough to know that the situation needed more explanation. 

 _The exact opposite of Nishinoya. That little spitfire would jump right into a brawl without thinking about the implications,_  Keiji mused with a small chuckle,  _the kid would be the absolute worst type of Alpha._

"It wasn't him. He helped me," he said with an exasperated sigh, placing one hand on Bokuto's shoulder. Then, he released a tranquil scent to ease the tension-- it was the first time he had allowed his Alpha housemates to smell him, and hopefully, it would be the last. Allowing his fragrance to run free made him very anxious.

At his honest statement, Daichi promptly released Bokuto from his grip and the owl brushed off the front of his white shirt, huffing and puffing in agitation.

"Sorry..." The captain said sheepishly and his feral instincts rapidly dissipated, slowly clearing the thickness in the air.

"What was the proble-" Bokuto tried to respond, but was cut short by a very eager Oikawa.

He bowled Hajime out of the way, much to the Alpha's annoyance, and pulled Keiji into a full embrace. 

"What happened!? Your face! It's all bruised!" He cried into Keiji's dark locks, gently rubbing at his purple cheek with a thumb.

Oikawa irritated him to no end, but he was still grateful for their friendship-- even if it was founded on quips and chirps. 

"It's fine," he grumbled back at the slender Omega and tried to pull out of the motherly grasp. "Oikawa, let go. It's fine! I just helped out this random Omega. She was cornered behind the Humanities Building by these disgusting guys..."

The yellow house Alphas growled in unison at his recollection and Bokuto took a hesitant step back, rattled by the sudden, renewed hostility. Keiji knew that their anger wasn't directed at the owl, but at the situation-- they were obviously unhappy that he had been in danger. The sheer concept of it filled his heart with a strange pleasure. _A feeling that he was...unused to. Was it...did he feel...safe?_

"So noble~~" Oikawa sang out into the evening air. He increased his hold on Keiji and ignored the snarling Alphas with professional ease. "So brave~~".

"Oh my god. _Stop_ ," Keiji muttered into Oikawa's soft shirt, gnashing his teeth as the unwanted attention. "You would have done the same thing."

At his last statement, Hajime unleashed a vicious snarl-- displeased with Oikawa's tendency to throw himself into reckless situations. _He was going to have to get used to it_ , Keiji pondered with an impish grin, _that was all Oikawa ever did._

"Suga, I can smell you wanting to take Keiji for a scent reset. Why don't you and Oikawa take him upstairs to nest. We're all okay here," Daichi called out to the silver haired Omega-- observing the exchange from the porch.

Suga granted the Alpha a beaming smile in return and Keiji couldn't help but to be impressed with the captain's ability to pinpoint his desires so readily. The two had yet to mate, in fact, they had only know each other a few weeks. 

"You heard him Keiji! Upstairs to the nest we go!" Oikawa called out into the air, dragging his irritated figure into the yellow safe house. "Leave these grumps to their Alpha business~~"


	9. Owl Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thiiiis was meant to be a part of the last chapter, so it's a bit short and sweet. 
> 
> YaaYY, a set up chapter. 
> 
> Enjoy, and thanks as always for reading/the kudos/comments. It is very motivating!

**Chapter Nine: Owl Boy**

**Daichi~**

"Hey, man. I really am sorry. We just get...somewhat protective...when it comes to our Omegas," Daichi said apologetically, taking another step back from Bokuto's bristling figure.

Asahi nodded in agreement from his position next to him, brown eyes filled with regret.

It was the truth. He felt absolutely terrible about preemptively attacking his own teammate. He, like most of his Alpha housemates, had become almost overtly aware of Omega threats of late.  _Rightfully so._

" _Your_ Omegas?" Bokuto asked and furrowed his brows in question as he shuffled his feet from side to side on the hot pavement.

"Uh, yeah..." Daichi faltered, unsure of how to explain the complex subject.

"The silver haired one that was on the porch earlier is Daichi's. There's a short one with spiky blonde bangs that belongs to Asahi. And the tall, snarky one that bowled into Keiji is  _mine_ ," Hajime stated matter-of-factly, the last word rolling off his tongue with a possessive growl.

Daichi was momentarily stunned by the straightforwardness of the statement. It was uncharacteristic of the normally stern Alpha and something about the wording left him bothered.

"I wouldn't say that they  _belong_  to us, per say…" He quickly added in before trailing off, unable to come up with a better term to describe their new relationship with the Omega housemates. 

"Yeah, right. My bad," Hajime nodded in agreement and a slight flush of embarrassment spread across his cheeks-- once again, stunning Daichi with his display of emotion. 

_What exactly happened to him in the past few days? First, the kid ropes them into fixing an Omega residence and now he suddenly starts blushing and calling Oikawa his?_

Bokuto let out a gut-busting laugh, slightly keeling over to grab his stomach. "Well, if Hajime is involved in this Omega-loving business, then I know it must be serious!"

Daichi was immediately disrespected by the sarcastic statement. He began to growl out, and his housemate's followed suit to show their dissatisfaction.

Bokuto took another hesitant step back. "Woah, okay. Sorry guys," he conceded, his large hands out in front of him. "I didn't mean that the way it came out, okay?"

"Good," Asahi barked back and Bokuto's yellow eyes widened in astonishment-- surprised by the uncharacteristic show of aggression from the giant teddy bear.

"Okay well…" The owl continued, shrugging off the tense situation once more. "What's up with that quiet one...I think his name is Keiji?"

 _He was….genuinely interested_ , Daichi pondered to himself, _that was...unusual._  Bokuto's sole focus in life had always been volleyball, nothing more, nothing less. In fact, he was surprised that the owl had been able to keep his marks high enough to remain on their team at all. 

"He isn't anybody's  _partner_ ," Hajime replied with a small shrug and Daichi silently bookmarked the word-- it was the perfect way to describe their blooming relationships with the Omegas.

"Yeah, he definitely has been the most aloof of the bunch," Asahi added, nodding in agreement.

"Hey," Daichi chimed in, turning to face his housemates, suddenly remembering his previous conversation with Suga. "Did you guys know that he can fully suppress his Omega scent? That's crazy, right?"

"Really? Wow, I wonder if they can all do that…" Asahi half mumbled in question, stroking his goatee as he pondered.

"Apparently, they can't. It's Keiji's thing. Suga told me that's the reason he doesn't partner up with the other Omegas when he goes to class," Daichi replied to the bunned giant, pointing a knowing finger up to the blue sky above them.

"Yeah, there's no way Shittykawa would be able to do that. He's too outspoken," Hajime lazily added to the expanding conversation.

Asahi's large hand stroked his goatee as he nodded. "Mmm. Nishinoya is too energetic and  _careless_ with his scent."

"Hey, have you ever smelled Keiji, like _at all_ before today?" Daichi questioned, completely forgetting Bokuto in their conversation.

When Keiji unleashed his calming scent, he had nearly fallen over in shock. It was a cool smell of ice and steel that certainly suited the quiet Omega. At least, from his perspective it did-- the boy was rather aloof, a mild scent seemed like the perfect fit.

There was a few moments of quiet reflection before Asai exploded into a train of thought. "No, I mean, I can smell Suga sometimes. It's like fresh baked pastries, right?" Daichi nodded in confirmation and the bunned giant continued. "Oikawa sometimes smells like clean laundry, or the ocean."

"Pretty much, yeah," Hajime replied, stifling a yawn against the back of his hand.

"Oh, hey! I could even smell a hint of roses off of Yachi...even though it was mostly shrouded with fear. But, yeah. I don't think I've ever smelled Keiji's scent before today," Asahi finished, a quizzical look on his soft face.

"Yeah, and the calming scent he released was so mild anyways. I could hardly smell it~~" Hajime added and Daichi couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's Oikawa-like tone.

"What are you laughing at," he chirped, narrowing his dark eyes.

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering when you're going to take the plunge with Oikawa."

"Eh, like eleven days."

"I-I'm sorry, what?" Daichi blubbered, startled by the abrupt and open statement. "You're, what?"

"Yeah. His heat is in eleven days."

"You've already talked about mating?!" Asahi blurted out, his eyes wide with interest. By smell alone, Daichi could tell that he and Nishinoya had yet to even sleep in the same bed together.

"Mmm. We're good to go," Hajime drawled, reaching his hands above his head in a satisfying stretch. "I'm surprised that you and Suga haven't. Has his cycle already passed or something?"

"Man, I don't know. I want to, but I think he's had some pretty shitty past experiences with the whole thing. I don't want to push him," Daichi remarked, not wanting to share anything too personal about  _his_ Omega.

He did his best to stifle a protective growl at the thought of Suga's tragic, yet unknown past. _It was Suga's pain...the boy would divulge it when he felt comfortable enough to do so_. Plus, Daichj was still confused about his own immense desire to mate with an Omega-- especially so soon after meeting him. Maybe that was just an excuse he told himself to deal with the silver boy's subtle rejections... _Hajime and Oikawa certainly didn't seem to have the same worries._

"Yeah, shit. That's tough," Hajime grumbled with a tone of genuine concern that surprised him. "I don't know, man. Good for you. Just keep taking your time, it'll work itself out," he added and Daichi found himself immensely grateful for the unexpected support.

"There's _no_ way I'm letting you beat me to the punch!" Asahi chirped, successfully lightening the pensive mood.

"Ya right, Asahi. You're _never_ going to mate with Nishinoya if you don't man up and confront him about it," Hajime poked back with confidence, always ready to quip at his housemates with ease. "You haven't even slept together."

"Hey, I was wondering-" Bokuto attempted to jump into the conversation, but his words were quickly drowned out.

"I'm going to ask him, okay! Get off my back!" Asahi whined out, throwing his hands up in defeat. "I just need a little more time!"

"I will bet you one hundred dollars that you won't nail the kid down as your official partner in the next...two weeks," Hajime challenged, eyes glistening with unchecked humor.

"I second that bet!" Daichi added in with a sly smirk. He rarely pestered Asahi, but right now, he couldn't help himself-- the bunned man was such an easy to target.

"Sh-shut up, that's not true!"

"Then take the bet."

"Yeah! Take the bet!"

"HEY!" Bokuto yelled, startling them from their playful bickering.

"Oi, I forgot that you were even here," Hajime quipped at their grumbling teammate. "Normally, you're so fucking obnoxious. What's your damage?"

"Yeah, why are you so quiet, man?" Daichi pushed, his own curiosity getting the best of him once again.

Normally the owl _was_ obnoxious.  _Why wasn't he acting like his normal, upbeat self? Had his encounter with Keiji...and with the Alphas...had it rattled him?_

"Huh? I don't know. Stop hassling me! I'm just thinking about some stuff..."

"Out with it," Hajime barked, growing irritated with the length of their conversation. Daichi understood the frustration-- _he wanted to return to his Omega too._

"Well, I guess I'm just curious s'all. I'm not exactly one to jump in to defend an Omega...before today...I just kind of...smelled you guys on Keiji and shit went black. Before I knew it, I was in the fray."

Daichi and his housemates sat in a stunned in silence, listening intently to Bokuto's recollection of the events. The bizarre, and irritating, story added another piece to his already complex puzzle-- his Alpha housemates had developed abnormally strong feelings towards the Omegas in a short period of time, his own personal desire to mate with Suga was perplexing, and the unusual pack instinct frustrated him to no end. Now, an Alpha from _outside_  their circle of housemates had jumped in to protect an Omega... _one that he had never even met_.

 _He needed answers, not more questions!_ He wanted nothing more than to see the puzzle completed.

*******

Suga and Daichi were basking in their post-Monday sex scents, feeling content and satiated. While Daichi felt overly relaxed in the presence of _his_ Omega, his previous conversation with Bokuto was still fresh in his mind, clouding his pleasant thoughts.

"So, Bokuto said something interesting today," he said, unsure of where to start the explanation.

"Mmm, he's your teammate right? The one that looks like an owl? It's weird that he just showed up at the house with Keiji," Suga purred in response from his seated position, perched in Daichi's lap.

"It _is_ weird, but not as weird as when he told us that he could smell Keiji. I mean, I haven't even smelled Keiji before today, and I live with him! And what's more, he told us that he jumped in to protect him because he smelled  _us_  on him."

"Really!?" Suga blurted out loudly, looking up at his with astonished, hazel eyes. "That's rare. I mean, _extremely_ rare. Keiji doesn't let _anyone_ smell him, unless he wants them to."

"Do you think it's because he was shaken up from his... _run in,_ " Daichi asked, unable to help himself from growling out the last words-- he hated th thought of the small Omega being cornered against his will. 

"I highly doubt it. Stuff like that has never affected his ability in the past," Suga lectured, receiving a protective snarl from Daichi in response.

_Stuff like that. Past. Keiji hurt by Alphas...before._

"Relaxxx, my Alpha," Suga purred, gingerly rubbing his silver hair against Daichi's scent glands. "Maybe, something about Bokuto caught his interest. That, or the owl Alpha has a really perceptive nose."

"Huh," Daichi remarked, grateful for the calm scent that Suga was lacing into the air-- he wanted to live inside the sweet, chocolatey smell. "Bokuto does _not_ have a good nose, I can tell you that for sure. He has the attention span of a squirrel."

"Well, that solves the great mystery, then. Seems like he caught Keiji's attention," Suga reckoned, slightly adjusting against his broad chest.

"Actually, Bokuto inserting himself into our affairs did give me an idea, though. And I'd kind of like to have your thoughts on it."

"Ready and waiting for input! In more ways than one," the Omega cheekily replied, looking up at him with glassy, taunting eyes.

"Don't make me fuck you into these sheets again," he snarled out, inhaling the boy's silver locks to get another fix. Suga granted him another soft purr at his touch, playfully shimmying against his ass against his lap.

"Stoooooooop. Stop. Just for a second. Let me get this out first, then I'll fuck you until you can't take it anymore," Daichi pleaded, tightening his grip around the cheeky Omega's waist. "Bokuto reminded me of our volleyball game this weekend, and I was _thinking_ that you should bring the flock. Tanaka and Kuroo are out of rotation, so they can sit in the bleachers with you guys. Keep you safe and stuff. Plus, I kind of want to gather a bit more information on this whole...thing. I mean, I can understand our Alpha housemates wanting to protect the nest, but Bokuto? We keep getting more questions instead of answers. Maybe going out as a group will help flesh some of this stuff out."

Upon finishing his proposal, he prayed that Suga understood that he had the nest's best interests in mind. Moreover, the prospect of _his_ Omega watching him play in one of his season games excited him. He wanted to show off... _just a little._

"I agree, it would be interesting to see how the group interacts in public. And, if you think they'll be safe, then I'm all for it. You've more than proven yourself as a worthy Alpha," Suga said sweetly, the heartwarming words sending butterflies through Daichi's chest.

 _A worthy Alpha_. He would show him just how great an Alpha he really was. Grabbing the silver Omega, Daichi flipped him over and pinned him beneath his own weight, feeling his knot rearing up for round two.

**Keiji~**

Bokuto had begun following Keiji on his walk to campus in the mornings. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the owl boy had made it seem like a coincidence. _Oh, Keiji, what a surprise, I didn't know you walked this way too,_ he had said-- as if he would fall for such a bullshit story. By Thursday, the Alpha was standing on the sidewalk in front of the yellow house, shuffling from side to side on the balls of his feet, waiting for him. When Friday rolled around, he was startled to find the owl waiting for him outside of the Humanities Building, unapologetic and eager to walk him home. He didn't like to admit it, but he had grown accustomed to the energectic company. He had even caught himself subconsciously releasing his natural fragrance more readily around the Alpha-- something that made him very nervous.

"You coming to our game tomorrow?" Bokuto chirped out from beside him, his spiked hair glistening in the evening Friday sun.

"I already told you, yes," Keiji drawled back, stifling a yawn.

The school week had exhausted him, but Bokuto's scent was... _reinvigorating._

"Right, right. Then, you'll get to see my wicked cross-court smash!" The owl loudly proclaimed, turning his head to flash him with a beaming grim.

Keiji hated to admit it, but he liked the Alpha's wide smile, and the cocky, joyous scent that often accompanied it.

"I'll judge it when I see it," he snarkily replied, happy to knock the owl down a peg. However, when he slumped his shoulders, once again entering one of his classic pout sessions, Keiji chimed in once more to fix his sullen mood. "I'm _sure_ it's as good as you say it is."

As much as he enjoyed teasing Bokuto, he always felt bad when he saw the sullen look on his face. _The guy was sure as hell easy to get to....it was a wonder that he exuded so much confidence...that shit could disappear on a dime._

"Hey, you smell really nice today," Bokuto stated matter-of-factly, stretching his arms up into the orange sky. "I like it~"

At the abrupt comment, Keiji nearly fell over in frightful panic. Apparently, the owl could shake off his sulky moods, faster than the speed of light.

"W-what?" He stuttered as he furiously attempted to reign in his scent, only to find it extraordinarily difficult to do so.

 _Why did he have no conscious control over his fragrance around this guy?_ He huffed out a puff of frustrated air at the notion,  _was it because his body...wanted the Alpha...to smell him?_

"Very _icy_ today. Much more than yesterday. I guess on Fridays, you're less stressed and ready for the weekend!"

"Wait, what do you mean? You can only smell me today?" Keiji questioned, desiring information.

He did _not_ like this increasing loss of control with his scent-- it had been years since he felt this... _inexperienced._

"Nah, I could smell you all week, but it was more metallicy. Today, ya got some ice mixed in. Chilly. I like it," Bokuto explained, shoving his large hands in the pockets of his grey sweat pants, eyeing Keiji down will probing, owl eyes.

Keiji met his gaze, subtly shivering from their yellow depths-- they were eyes that could see through anything...including his bullshit. For a brief moment, a pleasant thought flickered across his mind before he shoved it away with great force, willing it to never come back again.  _He was never going to mate. Not with an Alpha. Not with Bokuto. Not ever._

"So..." he  started, unable to hide the upset from his tone. "You're saying that I normally smell like metal..."

Of all the wonderful things that Omegas had for fragrances, he landed with... _metal_. What an awful thing to smell like. It was cold, dense, industrial-- there was not a single appealing aspect to it. He shook his head and forced a wry smirk,  _why should he care?_  Omega scents were solely used to attract Alphas, something which he had no desire to do in the first place. He should be grateful for the full fragrance. However, even with that idea in mind, he couldn't help his ego from feeling somewhat bruised.

"Yeah!" The owl boy proclaimed loudly, glancing up at a flock of birds passing above them. "Like an ice colllllllld metal."

When he remained silent, Bokuto rolled his neck over to eye him down, questioning his upset disposition. "Wait, did you not know what you smelled like?"

He gave the owl a side eyed look, then let out a puff of air at the ignorance and rattled off a quick explanation.

"Well, Omegas can't smell their own natural scent, or each other's, for that matter. It's mostly used to attract Alphas."

_To attract a mate._

"It's more like, we smell each other's feelings, but there's no perceivable fragrance...just...emotion. I guess the only time an Omega really knows what sort of fragrance they give off, is when an Alpha tells them."

"Reaaaaally," Bokuto drawled, finally tearing his gaze away, much to Keiji's relief.

He felt like the Alpha was undressing him with his golden eyes-- it was making him rather uneasy.

"Well, I'll tell ya then! You can thank me later. Your silver haired friend smells like fresh pastries and that guy, Oikawa, smells like the ocean...and sometimes clean laundry. It kind of flickers back and forth."

"And I smell like...metal," Keiji quietly indicated, exuding a disappointed scent that he didn't have the energy to stop.

"Eh, Suga's scent is way too sweet for my tastes, and Oikawa's reminds me of the time I almost drowned during summer vacation while I was in middle school," Bokuto declared casually, kicking a loose pebble down the sidewalk. "Yours is...nice, I guess. It's not overbearing, like most of the Omegas I've smelled. I don't know, it's crisp. I like it.

Keiji couldn't help but smile at the truthful undertone in the statement. While it wasn't a beaming _Bokuto_ type of smile, it was nonetheless genuine. There was no denying that the owl made him feel comfortable enough to allow his scent to roam about more freely-- albeit, against his conscious wishes. Withthat thought in mind, he suddenly realized just how _exhausting_ it was  to keep his fragrance on lock, in a near constant state of suppression.  _Crisp steel and ice,_  he mused with a sly smirk, _maybe it wasn't so bad after all._

**Daichi~**

Daichi hurried through his school work, wanting to have it finished before the end of the night. He wanted zero distractions for the weekend-- he had enough on his plate, thinking about both the logistics of the volleyball game, and the safety of the Omegas that were going to attend. Gathering up his papers, he sniffed the air in his room, trying to ascertain Suga's position within the house. After a few moments of sifting through the various familiar fragrances, he noted that the Omega was in the nesting room on the floor above him. He rounded the flight of stairs and knocked on the oaken door before him, sensing Suga's growing irritation, radiating from within it.

"Oh, Daichi. Come in," he heard Suga call from beyond the door, granting him access its tea green confines.

"What's wrong?" He questioned, closing off the dark hallway behind him.

Suga stood a few meters away, shuffling things around in a flurry-- obviously looking for something important.

"I was hoping that I would be able to find that study from the seventies," the silver Omega called over his shoulder without looking, flipping over a few blankets with irritation. "You know, the one that I had checked out? Our conversation the other day reminded me of it, but I've looked everywhere! It must have been lost during my run-in with those Alphas."

A deep, throaty growl escaped Daichi's throat-- the reminder of Suga, the Alphas, and the Cultural Building stirred his instincts from their pleasant slumber, telling him to barricade the Omega inside his room for all eternity.  _Stop_ , his conscious mind commanded,  _Suga was his own person. He was not his. He had no right to force his instinctual protection over him._

"Keiji said something to me the other day that made me think about the _pack_  mentality you had mentioned," he went on, actively ignoring Daichi's instinctual snarls. "Remember, you said that Bokuto had told you that he could smell you guys on Keiji? Keiji told me the same thing, so he's not lying…" He pondered out loud, trailing off before quickly turning around to face Daichi with wide, chocolate eyes. "Not that I'm calling Bokuto a liar! I didn't mean that the way it came out!"

Daichi chuckled, feeling warmer now that he had the Omega's full attention.

"No, I know, I know. Don't stress about it."

"Okay, but it's weird, right?"

 _It certainly was interesting._ Bokuto normally didn't give a shit about Omegas, yet he could smell the owl's scent on Keiji every single day this week. It wasn't because his teammate had scented the Omega, but the smell was prominent enough for him to tell that the two boys had been spending  _a_   _lot_ time together-- right under their unsuspecting noses. _Was the kid trying to court the Omega? Had he felt the pack instinct, as well?_

"I know we already talked about this, but I didn't really give it my full attention until now," Suga pronounced with an eccentric interest that was not lost on Daichi.

The Omega was a scholar, through and through. He had come to understand that the silver boy loved the challenge of solving a mystery, a trait which he greatly admired. The way Suga's hazel eyes glazed over with acute curiosity, the the animation behind his words when he discussed a subject that had peaked his interest-- these were the things he had grown to love.

"I just," Suga began once more, this time releasing a heavy sigh of exasperation. "I don't know what to do with all of this information. I mean, I don't know about you, but my primary education doesn't explain any of this stuff! All my teachers ever did was drone on and on about how to stay safe, the mating process, puberty, childbirth, etcetera. Nothing useful to what we're experiencing. Like, the only thing I know about fragrances is between Alphas and Omegas. Did they teach you anything about Alpha on Alpha scent mixing, or the variations of it? Anything that might be helpful?"

"No, not a single thing. I mean, not anything useful to this _pack_ shit, anyways. Everything we learned mostly pertained to Alpha on Alpha violence."

"What do you mean?"

"Like," he started, trying to put his thoughts into words. "When two Alphas get into a spat about something, which happens _a_ _lot_ , the Alpha with the more dominant scent can sometimes force the lesser Alpha to submit without any need for physical altercation. But, I mean, it's all dependent on the personality of the people too. Like, I've known some pretty scrappy Alphas in my time…"

 _Scrappy Alphas like Yuji,_ he mused with a knowing smirk,  _the kid wasn't the most dominant Alpha around, but he had never seen him back down from a fight. No matter how dominant his opponent was._

"While that is good to know, you're right, it doesn't help us," Suga replied with a sweet smile that melted Daichi's insides. "So, aside from the article, we have zero resources on Alpha scent mixing, _fantastic_. Just who am I supposed to ask about this stuff? I suppose I could ask Miyo, but it's not like the education system has changed in the last fifty years. I just wish those stupid Alphas didn't toss my bag around so much. I should've gone back to the scene to find it," he finished his ramblings with a deep, mournful sigh.

 _Stupid Alphas, indeed._  If Daichi ever ran into them again, he was certain that his instincts would flare up to such a degree that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from slaughtering them. He would be glad to.

"Daichi, if you're going to growl every time I bring up a gross encounter between Alphas and Omegas, you're going to break your vocal cords," the silver haired boy chastised him, successfully snapping him out of his bitter anger with a fresh, sweet scent. 

"I know, I'm sorry. I can't help it. It's instinctual," he said apologetically, shaking his head at his upset.

He wished that he had better control over his internal beast, but he knew in his heart that it was never going to happen-- especially now, after everything he had witnessed and learned. He was growing more and more sympathetic to the Omega cause with each passing day.

"I know~~" Suga purred back, closing the distance between them. "I guess I shouldn't give you such a hard time about it. I am grateful for it, I promise."

Although the words were genuine, Daichi couldn't help but pick up on a very subtle tone of hesitation. Suga was still unsure of his intentions, perhaps rightfully so. Daichi couldn't fault him for it. From the subtle hints of information he had gathered during Suga's various ramblings, it was clear that his sole experience with Alphas was in their desire to claim ownership over him. It was an instinct that Daichi had been actively fighting against. He didn't want to own Suga, he wanted a partnership-- where both parties brought skills to the table that the other was lacking.  _It might take time_ ,  _but he would prove to the silver boy that he supported his desire for anonymity-- even if it took the rest of his life to do sk._

"Hey, do you remember anything from the article?" He finally asked boy after a few moments of silent reflection. "Anything at all?"

Suga hunched down to shuffle a few papers on the floor, then sat back on his haunches and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Not really, that's kind of why I checked it out. I was too tired to even take notes on it. So stupid of me."

"Maybe we can find it in another library?"

"Yeah, maybe. I mean, I already scoured the internet this morning, but there are no electronic versions of it. So, that's not a bad idea."

"Do you remember a name? Or even a place from it?"

"Well, there was this one name that stuck out...Kaito Hirano. He was this Alpha member in one of the control groups. At least, I think he was."

"Maybe we can track him down?" Daichi suggested, knowing that it was a long shot. He just needed _something_ , any lead he could get that could help him answer his burning questions.

"I guess it's worth a shot. It's not like we have any other leads! I'm going to do some research on the professors at our University, as well. Maybe one of them could help us out."

"Yeah, good idea. You'll let me know if there's anything I can help with? I'll gladly chase down a few leads for you."

"Of course," Suga replied, rising up to full height to gingerly kiss him on the cheek. "But, let's put it to bed for this weekend? I'm excited to see you play in your match."

Daichi smiled, his muscles turning to jello from the smell of Suga's joyful fragrance. He couldn't wait to show off his volleyball team the following afternoon, even if he was a bit nervous. However, he was sure that having his Omega there, watching him play, would make him work harder than he had ever before-- and his team certainly needed the drive. They were up against Date Tech, and it was the last game of the summer season.


	10. Enter the Arena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short chapter! It just made the most sense to separate here from the next part.
> 
> Thank you thank you thank you for readingggggggggg :D
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Ten: Enter the Arena**

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa and Suga held Yachi's hands the entire walk to the Campus Sport Arena. Although they were accompanied by Kuroo and Tanaka, who released territorial growls at every Alpha that made a pass at the flock, the two motherly Omegas felt it best to give the small girl a bit of extra comfort. While the near-constant stream of unfamiliar Alphas had initially made Yachi yelp and release a toxic scent of fear, by the time the group had arrived at the campus arena, she had become quite comfortable in knowing that their yellow house counterparts were not going to relax their guard. Once they finally arrived, the entire nest seemed to be at ease.

"Its so big~~ What a spectacle," Oikawa stated, to no one in particular, as they entered the glass doors of the athletic center.

"It smells like air salonpas!" Shoyo yelled out from ahead of him, throwing his hand up in delight.

"RIGHT?!" Nishinoya chimed in response and jogged to catch up with his small, ginger friend.

"You're both so weird!" Tanaka called over his shoulder, chucking loudly at the two bouncing Omegas behind him. "Frickin' Omegas..."

"Are you kidding me, baldy?! I would give anything to play in an arena this large," Nishinoya proclaimed to the snickering Alpha. "My Omega team would never get this level of funding...or spectators."

"Oh...yeah. That really sucks…" The bald Alpha faltered apologetically, exuding a subtle musk of shame. "I'm sorry it's like that..."

Oikawa knew exactly how Nishinoya felt- he had played through his high school years, too. A brilliant setter, even if he did say so himself, and he greatly missed the thrill of the court. The  _Omega Inclusion Initiative_  did not extend to the sports department, much to his dismay. He had been forced to let the dream die after graduation.

"Oi!" Kuroo barked out from the back of their pack, his voice careening over the various noises in the expansive hall. "So, we're going to go upstairs to the second level. There's a section cordoned off from the rest of the bleachers that is normally used for special guests. Coach Ukai said that we can use it. Should be mostly private."

As the group made their way through the crowds, towards the large stairwell, Oikawa noticed that, much like on campus, quite a few of the Alphas around them had their Omega mates by their sides. It was always much safer to leave the house once mated--  _but at what cost?_  Many of the Omegas looked not a day over eighteen. _How did they know that the Alpha they chose to partner with was a good egg?_  Society made it nearly _impossible_ to partner up romantically for extended periods of time, it was too risky. The dating scene consisted of no more than a few months,  _at best_. Oikawa snorted at the thought, he hated it.

"Professor Ukai coaches your volleyball team too?" Suga asked the rooster, his voice penetrating Oikawa's dark, internal reflection.

"Yeah, he's kind of a pain in the ass, but he's lightened up recently. I think it's because he's been hanging out with a lady friend," Kuro called over his shoulder at Suga and wriggled his dark brows. As much as their sugar momma tried to hide it, Oikawa knew that the boy was an incorrigible gossip.

"Hey!" Tanaka barked at a black haired Alpha ahead of them, much to close to Nishinoya. "Back off pretty boy. Don't even think about it," he snarled and shoved, none too playfully, the interested party out of the way. "So _annoying,"_ he huffed out in frustration as the Alpha shuffled off in anger. "They're like mosquitoes, how the fuck do you guys handle it?"

"You're telling me. It ain't easy!" Nishinoya chirped, patting the bald Alpha on the back. "Thanks, man!"

"Hey, no problem my little buddy. Ain't nobody gonna touch you on my watch!" Tanaka declared loudly, beaming down at the small spitfire at his side.

Oikawa chuckled at the ordeal and the group proceeded forward, rounding the stairs up to the upper floor. When the stepped onto the second landing, he took a moment to take in the environment. The left side of the center housed a large volleyball court, with red padded flooring and white lines. Two teams, their own University team and the other,  _Date Tech,_  were warming up below, taking turns serving over the net. The walls surrounding of the closed in court alternated colours-- a deep orange, expansive black, and a true, eggshell white. The University's colours. The bleachers themselves, spanning the entirety of the second level, were navy and recently cleaned. Above them, a large poster of the University's mascot, a crow, hung from the ceiling and a variety of championship banners ran along the lengths of the wall beside it.

"Have you guys ever been here before?" Kuroo called out from the back of the group and Oikawa glanced over his shoulder, unable to hide a subtle smile at the sight of a sleepy Kenma, perched lazily across the rooster's back.

"No! But, I wish I could live in here! The vibe in here is amazing!" Shoyo yelled back in response, vibrating with unchecked energy.

"Oh man, me too," Nishinoya added, eyes wide with envy. "I bet the feeling of being on the court is killer. I played as a libero throughout high school. Got the libero of the year award too, in my last year. Too bad I couldn't continue on after graduation."

"Oi, are your Omega leagues as good as the Alpha ones?" Tanaka asked with genuine interest.

"I dunno, man. I've never seen an Alpha game, except on television. I guess I'll know after today!"

"Alright, ya chitchatters," Kuroo started as he lifted a metal bar that was cordoning off a section of bleachers. "Pile in kiddies, let's watch our boys take Date Tech to town!"

One by one the group sat down, spreading across their private area of seating. Oikawa was more than a little pleased to find that the section had the perfect view of the court- not too far away, centered with the net, and no bleachers in front of them.  _As expected,_ he thought to himself,  _the area was normally used for scouts, after all. What a VIP experience._

He watched on with growing interest as the Alphas continued their warm up on the padded court, paying extra attention to Hajime's muscled form in his black jersey. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he could pick up his Alpha's scent quite easily from where he sat- it seemed that the more he nested with the snarky boy, the more he could smell the boy from further distances. Oikawa had figured that it would be the same for Hajime, a theory that was confirmed when the Alpha glanced up at him from the court, granting him a cocky smirk.

"Hey," he said loudly to grab the attention of the chatting group around him. "I'd like to get some snacks. Someone, _Kuroo_ , want to buddy up with me~~"

"Alright, alright," Kuroo lazily responded, rising sluggishly to his feet. "What does everyone want? Popcorn, juice?"

"Chocolate, too. Please," Yachi added quietly from her position next to Shoyo, in the front row of seats.

"You got it baby~" Oikawa said with a smile, pleased to see that the small girl was comfortable enough to openly express her what she wanted.

He was so very happy that she had come. He knew that it had taken every ounce of her courage- her first time in public in months, only to attend and Alpha-packed venue.

He rose to his feet and followed Kuroo out of their sectioned off area. "Why thank you, Mr. Alpha~~" He said sweetly when the rooster raised the bar to let him pass through.

"You're welcome, Oikawa~~" Kuroo replied, matching the chestnut Omega's sassy tone with his own. "Kenma, ya want anything to eat?"

"Licorice," came the cat-like Omega's lazy reply.

"Does he always bring a video game with him?" Oikawa whispered, brows furrowed in question.

"Yeah, annoying isn't it?" The rooster responded with a heavy sigh. "He even does that when I'm playing in a game. Some mate."

The unusual pair made their way down the stairs to the expansive first floor, stopping at the back of the line to the vendor stalls. Oikawa had to admit that the air was almost too concentrated with Alpha scents for even him- and he was, by far, the most experienced of their nest with Alpha relations. Thankfully, the smell wasn't nearly as stifling at their private bleachers. He was glad to not have any sort of distraction that would pull away his attention from the game.

"Hey, pretty boy, you wanna let me take you for a spin?" A brown haired Alpha chirped as he passed by on the left. His shady group of friends laughed at the stupid,  _and uneducated_ , remark, egging him on.

"Fuck off," Kuroo barked, beating Oikawa to the reply. He lazily turned towards the undesired attention and released a throaty rumble of a growl- _a warning._

"Hey, man. I can smell that he ain't even yours! Relax," the chirpy Alpha called again, taking a confident step forward.

"You would be lucky if he was mine.  _His_  Alpha is much more vicious, and far less level headed, than I am," Kuroo snarled back, setting his shoulders back to stand at full height.

Oikawa found himself unusually flustered and his cheeks flushed a light pink.  _Kuroo thought that Hajime was more dominant? Less level-headed he could definitely see, but more dominant?_

After a few moments of a growling match, Kuroo turned back to Oikawa, satisfied that the other Alphas had lost interest. "Hey," he said, rubbing the back of his head with a large hand. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course~~" Oikawa sang in reply. "Fire away."

"Well, it's about Kenma…" Kuroo began before trailing off, his scent clouding the air around them with discomfort.

"Oh, don't feel awkward, Kuroo. It doesn't suit you," Oikawa replied, waving a hand out in front of him. "If you have an Omega question, who better to ask than an Omega?"

For a brief moment, he nearly unleashed a tranquil scent to comfort the rooster- a habitual response on his part-- but his logical mind rang true, reminding him that it would be unwise to do so around so many unknown Alphas.

"Y-Yeah. That's true. I can't argue there," the rooster boy surmised with a deep chuckle. "So, I've noticed that Kenma has started to well, nest with you guys a few times a week…"

 _Ah,_ Oikawa knew instantly what the problem was. "And you think that he's losing interest in you because of it," he knowingly remarked, shaking his index finger out in front of him. "You Alphas, you all like to pretend that you're not sensitive, but you really are~~"

"Pretty much...yeah. We kind of are. So, do you think-" Kuroo cut the sentence short, shifting his attention to the elderly Alpha vendor ahead of them. "Three large popcorn. Yeah, with butter. Nine- no- ten cranberry juice packs. Let's do, six bottles grape juice, and those M&M's. No, not the peanut ones. The regular ones. No, not the yellow bag the- yeah, the brown bag."

The rooster slid his credit card to the vendor to pay, which was quite generous, in Oikawa's opinion, and the two of them gathered up their treasure from the white counter.

"Anyways, do wyou shink he is?" Kuroo mumbled out from the bag of chocolate held between his teeth. "Lwoosing interwest, I mean."

Oikawa adjusted the popcorn in his hands. "Oh, you big lug. Of course not! Omegas...we just provide a different kind of comfort for each other. It's a kind of comfort that can't really be given by Alphas either. It's not like we need it _all_ the time, though," he paused to gather his thoughts, trying to find the best way to explain. "Think of it this way. You leave Kenma to go to volleyball practice right? Being around your Alpha friends is important to you, helps you get out aggression?"

"Mmm…"

"Then, Kenma occasionally nesting with the Omegas is essentially the same thing. Just swap aggression with...stress or anxiety."

"Do wyou shink that wyou will nwest with the Omegas swometimes after ywou mate ith-" Kuroo began but abruptly stopped his train of thought to unleash a vicious snarl at a pair of imposing Alphas on his right. "Fuck oph, we are twing to have-"

"Can't even understand you buddy," one of them interjected with a cheeky smirk. "Why don't you let that sexy Omega do the talking? I think that would suit us all."

"Oh, I bet you'd like that wouldn't you~~" Oikawa ventured as he adjusted the popcorn in his arms and grabbed the bag of chocolates from the rooster's teeth.

Kuroo thanked him with a nod before turning his attention back to the pair of Alphas. "Fuck off. Can't you see that we're in the middle of a conversation? Don't be fucking rude."

"Hey, baby," the loud mouthed Alpha called to Oikawa, ignoring Kuroo's well-worded threat. "Why don't you come and _converse_ with me instead?"

"I. Said." Kuroo snarled again, this time releasing a dominant scent that nearly bowled Oikawa over. "Fuck. Off."

When the rooster took a menacing step towards them, the two lesser Alphas let out a few throaty whimpers and scurried away. While Oikawa was grateful for the protection, he was also unused to it. Ordinarily, protection at that kind of level only came from familial Alphas, or from a mate. To him, Kuroo was neither, and yet the Alpha was still more than willing to throw himself into harm's way on his behalf.  _It was...unusual. And...nice. Perhaps, it was to be expected from an Alpha who had been mated since he was eighteen. Kenma had definitely found a good egg._

"Where were we?" Kuroo questioned, turning his attention back to Oikawa. "Oh, right. Do you think that you will still nest with the Omegas sometimes too? I mean, after you mate with Hajime?

Oikawa burst out laughing from the remark, a genuine gut-busting laugh. "I didn't know that our mating plan had become common knowledge!"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Don't worry, Mr. Rooster. I'm just giving you a hard time~~ I know you can smell the difference," Oikawa sang in reply, prompting the Alpha to flush red. "Of course I'll still nest with the Omegas, when the occasion calls for it! They're my family. I love them. Plus...some of them will still need me."

'I see. So, I guess I'm worrying for nothing then, eh?" Kuroo said with a tentative smirk. "Kenma has been in a better mood recently, and I probably have you guys to thank."

"You definitely do," Oikawa responded with a singsong laugh. "Now my turn for an embarrassing question. And trust me, mine's way worse than yours."

"Shoot."

"Were you able to...handle Kenma's heat? Like, didn't you get tired?"

It was a genuine question. Oikawa was more than a little worried that Hajime would become so exhausted with him by the end of their mating that the Alpha would regret doing it in the first place. Four days was a long time to be in need of constant fucking-- Oikawa had been cursed with a heat that was twice as long as the usual Omega one. The thought of Hajime becoming sick of him had wracked him with a fear that was so intense, it had kept him up at night all week.

This time, it was Kuroo's turn to laugh. "wWhat? Are you afraid that Hajime will get sick of you or something?"

"Are you psychic?!" Oikawa half-chirped back, astonished with the Alpha's bang on response.  _Was he that easy to see through?_

"Listen, I can smell Hajime's feelings for you, and trust me, that boy is not going to tire from a few days of fucking. First off, I don't think he  _can_  get tired of fucking. Second, I've never seen him so disinterested in other Omegas before. It's like...he doesn't even notice them now that he's met you. So, I _really_ wouldn't worry about it," Kuroo stated matter-of-factly and Oikawa couldn't deny that the words had a great, positive effect on his sanity.

"I guess-"

"If it makes you feel any better, I get reeeeally excited whenever Kenma's heat comes around, but don't tell him I said that."

"How long does his normally last?"

"The usual two days or so."

"Okay, see mine lasts around four…sometimes more. It's been a long time since I've skipped my prevention injector, so I'm not entirely sure. But the last time I had it, it was four days."

"FOUR?!" Kuroo shouted out, nearly dropping the large tray of drinks in his hands. "Jesus christ, Oikawa. Is that normal?"

"No, and now you see where my fear comes from~~"

"Oikawa, shut the fuck up. If Kenma's heat lasted for four days, I would be over the moon. Hajime is in for a real treat. I'm almost jeal-" Kuroo scoffed, but caught himself mid-sentence. "Not jealous like that! I love Kenma. Shit, don't get the wrong idea."

Oikawa looked up at the Alpha and, seeing the fear in his eyes, granted him a cheeky smile. "Oh don't worry, Kuroo. Your secret is safe with me~~"

"Oikawaaaa~~"

"Shhh, your secret is safe with me!"


	11. A Match Made in Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a few things about this chapter. 
> 
> #1 I realize that it might be polarizing for some readers because only half of the characters are playing volleyball. I’m hoping the the focus is more on character interactions than on the actual game itself (which is just a familiar backdrop), because I think that is more important!
> 
> #2 This chapter is soooooo wordy, and I’m sorry about that. I’ll probably drop back in to edit this down in a few days. 
> 
> Enjoy enjoyyyyyy, thanks for the comments! :)
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Eleven: A Match Made in Heaven**

**Suga~**

"Kurrrrooooo, you forgot my licorice," Suga heard Kenma softly whine from behind him.

"Aw shit...I  _guess_  I can go back and get some, but you're coming with me! And no video game!" The rooster replied with a feigned apology and gingerly grabbed the small boy by the front of his red shirt, shuffling him towards the edge of their section.

"Stop! I'm on the last level, you're going to make me mess up..." Kenma complained under his breath as Kuroo stole his handheld machine away, holding up out of reach.

"You're on this thing _all_ the time. I'm sure it's not gonna kill ya to join your loving Alpha on a stroll," the rooster quipped back, his voice fading off as the pair rounded the corner of the stairwell.

Suga smiled to himself, admiring their sweet relationship. The pair had been together for over five years... _would he and Daichi be like that, too?_  He was still unsure if he wanted to mate with the brunette man, he was too internally conflicted. Daichi was immensely caring, self-sacrificing, and logically in control of his instincts- everything Suga had dreamed for as a child. As he grew older, reality had set in and his romantic experiences with Alphas had made him... _wary. He didn't want a mate anymore, not ever._

"Whatcha thinking about, sugar momma?" Oikawa sang into his ear, startling him from his perplexing thoughts.

"Oh...nothing of importance!" He smiled back in a halfhearted attempt to hide his emotions, but he knew that his perceptive Omega friend had already seen through his facade.

"You're the worst at lying," Keiji chimed in, much to his surprise, from the seat in front of him.

"See! Even Keiji knows that you're hiding something!" Oikawa challenged, giving the boy a playful smack on the back.

"Gross!" Keiji drawled, reaching over his shoulder to brush off the back of his light navy shirt. "Oikawa, you got your buttery hands on my clothes. You're such an asshole."

"Don't change the subject, Keiji! Or Suga will get away!" Oikawa half-yelled into the air. "So, what's the problem? You're abnormally pensive. Where is the Mr. refreshing we all know and love~~"

 _Yup,_  Suga thought to himself with indignation,  _he wasn't getting away with it._

"I was thinking about mating and... _stuff,"_ he said quietly, wanting the conversation to stay between the three of them.

"Oh," the chestnut Omega replied, lightly bumping him against the shoulder. "Have you had  _the talk_  with Daichi or something?"

"Sort of...I know he wants to. Mate, I mean. He's made it pretty clear, but I'm not sure if...I do. It's only been a few weeks! The whole thing is just ridiculous. You know me...I don't want to mate _at all._ "

It was the absolute truth, Suga wasn't sure, and he was feeling pressured to make a decision that he didn't have any desire to make at all. He knew that owed Daichi  _something-_  an explanation, at the very least.

"I dunno, I'd take your time with it. He'll wait for as long as he can. I think he's a pretty good guy," Keiji said quietly without turning around.

Suga nearly choked on his popcorn at the honest statement. _A good guy? Keiji...saying something positive...about an Alpha? What on earth had gotten into him?_

"Hey," the blue-eyed Omega continued. "Not to change the subject, but what do you guys think about...uh...number four?"

 _No, please change the subject,_  Suga thought to himself with a smirk. He didn't want to discuss Daichi any longer. Leaning forward to eye down the court, he matched Oikawa's movements to locate the jersey number in question while Keiji remained in place, sipping loudly on his cranberry juice, awaiting a response.

"You mean, the one that looks like an owl?" Oikawa asked, leaning back in his seat with a knowing smirk.

"Yeah…" Keiji droned back, clearly feigning his disinterest.

"You mean, the one that helped you out on Monday? With those Alphas?"

"Yes."

"You mean, the one who you've _smelled_ like, all week?

"Oikawa, shut up."

"I'm just saying~~"

"You and Bokuto  _have_ been spending a lot of time together lately. What's that about?" Suga chimed in, pushing the conversation further. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to make his nestmate divulge the information of his own accord.

"Yeah, what _have_ you been up to, you cheeky bastard," Oikawa sang out, leaning forward to sniff the air around Keiji's head. "Even now, you smell like him. It's cute!"

Keiji slowly craned his neck back, eyeing Oikawa with angry, ice coloured eyes. "Nothing," he stated before leaning forward to rest his arms against the railing in front of him. "He's just been annoying me all week."

Suga casually smacked Oikawa on the the bicep, and the two of them shared a knowing smirk- they were both ready and eager to interrogate their friend.

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa wanted to grab Keiji and shake the secrets out of him. He was keenly aware that the Omega was eyeing Bokuto's form on the court below, even if he was pretending not to.

"You don't sound annoyed about Bokuto~~" He finally chirped, glancing over to Suga, who raised an eyebrow in understanding- there was definitely more going on than Keiji was willing to share.

"Do you ever shut up?" The short haired Omega droned back without breaking his gaze from the moving figures, warming up on the court below.

"I-" Oikawa started to respond, but was cut short by an elbow jab in his lower rib. He glanced over to the silver Omega at his side, lips pursed in pain, and after a mere moment of eye contact, he knew Suga's intentions. The matriarch wanted to keep the conversation on track, and Oikawa had nearly fallen for Keiji's provocation. It always was the snarky boy's first line of defense- avoidance.

Suga gave him a knowing look, then directed himself to Keiji. "So, what do you like about Bokuto?"

"I never said I-"

"Okay...but if you _were_ to like something. What would it be?"

Keiji rose from his seat, turned his back on the court, and leaned against the railing behind him.  _Classic Keiji_ , Oikawa thought to himself with a smirk, _doing everything in his power to showcase his disinterest._

"That's essentially the same question," the blue eyed Omega retorted back with a shrug and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans.

"Oh, can't we _all_ just pretend that everything is hypothetical, even though it's not~~" Oikawa challenged back, he always enjoyed the instances when he and Suga got to gang up on the emotionless Keiji. They would peel back his layers like an onion, even if it took all night.

As if sensing their resolve, Keiji granted them with a bit of information. "Fine. Fine! I don't know. He's just been pestering me...and then I sort of...forgot that he was a pest. For a while."

 _Not even close to enough information!_ Oikawa pushed on for more. "You _forgot_ he was a pest, or he _isn't_ a pest?"

Keiji rolled his eyes and met his gaze, ready to enter a silent argument-- albeit, with the sound of volleyball impacts ringing throughout the air around them. Non-verbal debates had always been a common occurrence between the two of them, and they normally saw Oikawa as the victor. Keiji raised an eyebrow, his steel blue eyes saying something along the lines of:  _you're really going to make me do this? I'm not going to cave._ Oikawa stifled a laugh, which came out as an unattractive snort, and tilted his head knowingly to the side as if to say: _Oh, really? You know that I won't stop until I drag the truth out of you._

After a few more moments, with Suga watching the silent exchange with great interest, Keiji averted his gaze, sighed heavily, and shook his dark head. "I've stopped thinking about him as a pest. At first, his little charade of _accidentally running into me_ was annoying but, I don't know. Yesterday, we were walking home and I...sort of found that I was...accustomed to his presence."

"Ah! Annoyance changed to love~~ How very Keiji of you," Oikawa proclaimed loudly into the air and Keiji flinched back at declaration-- just the reaction he was looking for. He loved annoying the blue eyed Omega.  _Loooooved it._

"Oikawa, shut the fuck up. It's not love. You're insane," Keiji grumbled before turning his small, muscular form around to view the volleyball court once more-- no doubt looking for Bokuto.

"Well, maybe it isn't love," Suga suggested, giving Oikawa a very painful,  _that's enough,_ jab in the kidney. "But, you're clearly feeling something, right?"

"I guess."

Oikawa watched as his silver friend hopped over the row of bleachers ahead of him and leaned forward against the railing beside Keiji. He knew that his role in the conversation was over-- his specialty was pulling out the confession, not reconciling it with feelings.

That was all Suga.

**Keiji~**

Although Keiji was irritated that Oikawa had pushed him to confess things that he didn't even want to confess to himself, he was still grateful that his two friends had enough care for him to ask. He could feel Suga's calming presence radiating over him-- his silver friend's scent was the most influential Omega fragrance that he had ever come across. While it was significantly lighter this time, Suga was smartly keeping it reigned because of the Alpha-packed venue, it was still incredibly effective. Keiji took a deep breath and allowed himself to relax into its soft tones.

"I mean, I guess I'm feeling _something_ ," he stated in almost a whisper without breaking his gaze from the orange court below... _from Bokuto_.

 _What was he feeling?_  Admittedly, there were a few times when the desire to mate with the owl Alpha had flickered across his waking mind. If anyone could relate to what he was feeling, he knew it was Suga. Both of them wanted independence, they strived for it more than anything else. On more than one occasion, they had discussed their revulsion of mating. Yet, here they both stood, instinctively interested in Alphas that they hardly even knew.

Keiji rolled his head back to glance up at the high ceiling of the athletic center, then raked his gaze over to Suga. When he was greeted with warm, chocolate eyes of understanding, he conceded. It was too late to try and retract everything he had already said-- the only way to go now, was forward.

"What do you feel like when you're around Daichi?" He asked softly, knowing that Suga would answer honestly. _Unlike some other cheeky bastard...Oikawa._

Suga turned his body to face Keiji, gingerly leaning his side on the metal railing. "Well, I feel refreshed," he answered with a sweet smile. "Like the incredible weight of being an Omega is just...lifted off of my shoulders. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to mate with him."

"Like the weight of being an Omega is lifted…" Keiji repeated, trailing off into self-reflection.

"Yeah, I guess I feel...safe. I feel like the flock is safer with his help, too. He's...truly an incredible man. Someone who cares deeply for those he loves. It doesn't matter to him if they're an Alpha or Omega. He just...seems to see them all as...people."

A small smile flashed across Keiji's lips at the honest words. It felt like Suga was explaining it more to himself-- coming to his own, personal realization.

Keiji glanced down at Bokuto's form once more. The Alpha was incredibly fit, there was no denying that, but it was his personality that had embedded into the recesses of Keiji's mind. Yes, Bokuto was incredibly weak against criticism, but it was a vulnerability that he has never really seen in an Alpha before. The owl boy possessed a bizarre breed of charisma that made everyone, even those who didn't like him, want to cheer him on. It made people  _want_  to be his friend-- a temperament that provoked a desire within Keiji that called out for the owl's friendship and, _maybe_ , even something more.

**Yachi~**

"Yachi, look! They're finally starting!" Shoyo shouted much too close to her ear, causing her to flinch back from the loudness of his voice.

Although his energy overwhelming, being around him made her feel like she had been left out in the hot sun for hours on end, she loved his personal drive-- it was unyielding. Shoyo was magnetic, exceptional at making friends, and excited about almost everything. Indeed, he was the first of the yellow house Omegas that Yachi had become friends with and it was because of him that she was able meet, and eventually join, such a wonderful and caring flock. For that, she would always be eternally grateful.

"Yachiiiiiiiii, we get the first serve! Look at Tobio! He looks so scary, like a saber-tooth tiger! I wouldn't want to play against him…" The ginger cried, his teeth chattering with genuine fear.

"Doesn't he always look like that?" Yachi questioned back. She didn't have much experience with the black haired Alpha, but she had learned very early on this his resting face was perpetually stern.

"Yeah man, I've never seen him smile. Not even smirk!" Nishinoya chimed in from behind her, placing his arms around the shoulders of Tanaka and Shoyo, seated in the row ahead of him.

"Yeah, he always looks like that. So angry and pensive~" Tanaka called to her past Shoyo, seated between them.

Yachi liked Tanaka. His natural scent was initially overwhelming for her-- unlike the other Alphas, he always seemed to exude it at full force. However, over the past week, she had grown used to it-- something that was incredibly easy once she had come to the realization that he was almost as big of a softy as Asahi.

"He's always so grumpy. Sometimes, I hate that Daichi made him _my going out_ partner..." Shoyo announced, crossing his small arms over his pale orange shirt in a pout.

"You've only been living with him for three weeks!" Tanaka chirped, poking the ginger playfully in the side. "I've know the guy since high school and I'm pretty sure that I've only seen him smile like…. _once."_

"It would probably crack his face or something…" Yachi added quietly, accidentally vocalizing her stray thoughts.

The three boys next to her burst into a blubbering pile of laughter at her harsh, yet truthful statement.

"YACHI!" Tanaka cried out, leaning into Shoyo's shaking form and wiping a tear from his eye. "What a chirp! What a gal!"

"WHAT A BURN!" Nishinoya declared into the air, vigorously patting Tanaka on the back in agreement.

Yachi blushed a dark crimson. "Oh-oh god. _Please_ don't tell him I said that. I didn't mean to say it out loud!" She pleaded with frantic eyes. _The thought had taken a mind of its own and escaped out of her lips!_

"Don't worry, kid. We'll tell _everybody..._ but him," Tanaka replied with a hearty snicker and a wink.

"So...what's...who's playing what out there. On the court?" Yachi stuttered out, still flustered from her previous remark, desiring nothing more than to change the subject. "Um, w-what position is...uh...Daichi playing?"

"Why is Daichi the libero? I didn't peg him as a defensive specialist," Nishinoya answered her question by posing his own to Tanaka.

The bald Alpha leaned back against his seat and crossed his muscular arms over his chest. "Yeah, our libero graduated this year and Daichi's always been good at receives, so Coach Ukai moved him to fill the position."

"If the University allowed Omegas on the team, I can guarantee that I would be a better libero than he could ever be!" Nishinoya proclaimed, half pouting in his seat.

Yachi watched Daichi make a great receive, at least by her standards, from a serve that looked like it would break her arms off. She visibly shuddered. _Were there ambulances on call? A doctor?_ The volleyball was flying across the court at such an immense speed that she was certain someone was going to get knocked out.

"Well, that last dig wasn't too bad. I guess…" Nishinoya begrudgingly added, perking up in his seat to watch the game more intently.

When Tanaka shot to his feet to yell down at the court, "NICE KILL, BOKUTO," Yachi nearly jumped out of her seat and crumbled to the floor from the startling volume.

"Hey,Tanaka. What position does Bokuto play?" Shoyo asked without taking his shining eyes off the court.

Tanaka sat back down, reached under his chair, and pulled out his bucket of popcorn. Popping a few kernels into his mouth he replied, "left wing spiker. He's our main point scorer...when he's not being a drama queen."

"Yeah, he's definitely got the build of an ace," Nishinoya chimed in agreement, nodding his head.

"Hajime and I play right wing spiker. Asahi and Tsukishima are our middle blockers, and Kuroo too, when he's not out of rotation. They're the tallest on our team, so they do most of the blocking for us."

As if to convey Tanaka's description, Yachi watched as Asahi jumped up to block against an opposing spiker, killing the attack for a point. She visibly shuddered again and ignored her urge to shout: _Call a medic!_

"Nice kill. Nice kill." Tanaka murmured under his breath and nodded, shoving another handful of popcorn into his face. "Tobio is our setter," he continued, mumbling through his full mouth. "I haaaate to say it but, he's a talented kid. A fucking _prodigy_ of a setter. He's one of the reasons we've been doing so well this year."

Yachi could feel Shoyo literally vibrating in the seat next to her, admiration seeping off of him in droves. "Shoyo, your smell…" She whispered, hyper aware of the fact that his fragrance could attract the attention of unwanted Alphas.

"Oh, right!" The ginger Omega responded softy, reigning in his scent. "Sorry, Yachi. Good catch."

"Wow...look at that serve. It looks like it is floating…" Yamaguchi whispered, startling her from behind.  _She had forgotten that the freckled boy was even there!_ He had been so quiet the entire time, although, she knew that it was his way. Observe and reflect was his bread and butter.

"Yeah, that's a float serve," Tanaka called over his shoulder. "I could show you how to do it tonight in the yard, if you want."

"Really?" Yamaguchi exclaimed, eyes glistening with interest.

"For sure, man! It's really hard, though. Takes a lot of practice."

Yachi knew that Yamaguchi didn't care about any of that. He would practice until his hands bled if it meant perfection. She listened intently as Tanaka perked up from Yamaguchi's interest, exploding into monologue about the about the different the types of serves and the rules of volleyball. Once she was satisfied with his description of the team, she tuned out his chatter and watched the court with renewed interest. As the second set began, a new player stepped onto the court, one that she didn't recognize by either scent or looks.

"Who's that blonde man?" She softly asked Tanaka-- now obscenely yelling over the railing at the court below.

"The one in the back row? That's Yuji. He's fucking hilarious. Never takes practice seriously which drives Daichi absolutely _nuts!"_

It was abundantly clear to Yachi that the bald Alpha liked it when their team captain was annoyed. _He probably likes Yuji because he gets in trouble with Daichi as much as he does,_ she mused as a small smile skittered across her pale face.

"He's got a pretty heavy spike too, for someone so lean. But his specialty is keeping the ball up. It doesn't matter what body part he uses to do it, either. It's actually pretty impressive. That's why he's out there this set…" Tanaka paused, leaning over the railing to yell down at the court once more. "BECAUSE WE LOST THE FIRST SET!"

Yachi giggled at the bald man's unending frustration, shocking herself in the process. She was... _actually comfortable enough to laugh at an irritated Alpha._  At that pleasant thought, she let out another silent giggle, then raked her eyes back over the court-- hazel eyes landing on Yuji's athletic figure. She was intrigued by him and she wasn't sure _why._  Something about the blonde Alpha's scent was... _nice._  Unlike the other boys on the court, she could pick out his fragrance in an instant-- it didn't blend in like the other Alpha fragrances seemed to. She continued to watch him with growing interest, through the second set and into the third. Tanaka had explained to her that they needed to take this set to win the game and, as the points drew closer to twenty five, she found herself biting her nails in anticipation.  _Two points away...one point away...deuce. DEUCE?_

"It means that neither team can win until they score two points ahead," Tanaka said through gnashed teeth, as if he had heard her private thoughts. The tone of his voice had lost all signs of humor, it was almost threatening. Yachi found that she didn't mind it. She could tell that it wasn't directed at her, but at the closeness of the game.

However, the atmosphere around the court _did_ frighten her. She hated the new, heavy smell of the air. It was somber and laced with an aggressive intensity that was truly stifling. As she moved her hand to cover her nose, a single scent fluttered into her nostrils, catching her by surprise-- Yuji. Much like the other Alphas on the court, he smelled determined, but his fragrance still retained a kind of light humor that she found immensely appealing. It was as if he didn't feel the pressure of the game at all. In an instant, it kicked her emotions into overdrive. Suddenly, she  _needed_  their team to triumph over Date Tech. Moving her small hands to her lap, she sent out a silent prayer, hoping for a win.

**Yuji~**

Yuji knew he needed to get to the ball.  _Set point._ If he got this up, they would have a chance to attack and win.  _Too far to get with his arms...how could he keep it off the floor?_  The volleyball was falling so rapidly, he began to think that he would never make it in time when a scent struck him.  _Roses._  As he inhaled it in, he drowned into its calm, yet resolved nature, and the world around him slowed. He noticed that the ball was mere moments from dropping onto the padded court. Careening his body forward, he drove out his foot to make impact and the ball collided, flying high into the air. It was beautifully received by Tobio and smashed into the opposing court by Bokuto who let out a loud 'HEY, HEY, HEY,' in victory.

He stood stunned in place for a moment, paralyzed by the unfamiliar, comforting fragrance. As his Alpha teammates gathered around him, cheering over their win, he followed the disappearing scent with his nose-- high up in the bleachers, a small blonde girl sat, timidly smiling down at him.

**Yachi~**

"WE WON! WE BEAT DATE TECH YEAAAAH!" Tanaka shouted into the air, punching it with a closed fist.

This time, Yachi didn't flinch away. She was as exhilarated as the cheering crowd of familiar faces around her.

"I can't _believe_ he hit it with his foot!" Nishinoya cried, jumping onto Tanaka's back while whooping out shouts of victory.

"One step closer to the University playoffs!" Kuroo called out, vaulting over two rows of bleachers to embrace a cheering Oikawa and irritated Keiji. Even Kenma, perched on the rooster's back, was smiling. "We're having a party tonight. I've decided. I need some celebratory shenanigans!" He continued in a joyous tone, pointing a finger in Suga's direction.

"YES~~" Oikawa yelled, throwing his hands up in the air, nearly smacking a grumbling Keiji across the face.

"We certainly could use something to celebrate!" Suga chimed in with a toothy grin.

"Party, party, party~~ Party, party, party~~" Shoyo, Tanaka, and Nishinoya chanted, dancing in unison.

Even the normally quiet and anxious Yamaguchi looked excited for the night's events and Yachi found that she too, was looking forward to it.


	12. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part Two: Shrouded Pasts
> 
> Suga, his nest, and their Alpha housemates are ready to bond over drinks and celebrations! Everyone loosens up around alcohol, even the sullen Tobio and Tsukishima. Unfortunately, things get derailed when some unsuspected visitors arrive to ruin the party. Alphas will be forced to understand and sympathize with the nest's tragic past, while the Omegas find themselves at a crossroads-- is it okay to place their full trust in their new housemates?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY MaDE IT TO THE PARTy ArC. This portion of the work took me a loooooooong time to write (it became frustrating), and I bet it's going to take me even longer to edit it.
> 
> /sigh
> 
> Enjoy some feel good stuff, it won't last long! :(
> 
> **Last update for tonight!***
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Part Two: Shrouded Pasts**

**Chapter Twelve: The Party**

**Suga~**

It took some convincing, but Suga and Kuroo had finally managed to get Daichi to agree to a party... _under certain terms_. Only the volleyball team and the yellow house Omegas were allowed to attend and, as per usual, none of the flock could leave the house without an Alpha. This time, Suga felt that Daichi's protectiveness was... _reasonable._  He knew full well that the more his nestmates had to drink, the worse their scent suppression abilities became. Daichi had also forced Kuroo into the role of the _party mom,_ much to the rooster's dismay, but Suga couldn't complain. He felt better knowing that there would be a sober Alpha around to police things.

Half of the Alphas had gone to the liquor store and the remaining had gone to gather both Yuji and Bokuto, and a beer pong table from their Alpha residence. While the Omegas remained in the house waiting for their return, Suga had sprung them all into action. He had come across a box of decorations earlier in the week while he was cleaning, and the Omegas had decided to do a bit of surprise decorating.

"Raise those higher, Suga~~" Oikawa called out from his position in the dining room.

"It's not exactly easy, Oikawa…" Suga yelled back after steadying himself on his step ladder. "Wait, you have barely done any of your section!"

"I'm just a perfectionist, okay! I like to take my time~~" The chestnut haired Omega retorted back, stretching up from his standing position on the dining room table to string a set of lights around the archway to the kitchen. "At least  _I'm_ done with my set of paper flower decorations!"

"Suga, why don't you let me do that. I'm taller," Yamaguchi offered from his position, holding the step ladder in place.

"No, no. I'm almost finished! Just a few more rows…" Suga replied, sticking out his pink tongue in concentration as he balanced on the top step of the ladder and positioned his white string of lights across the ceiling.

"Shoyoooooooo, Noyaaaaaaaa! How's the backyard coming?" Oikawa called out the open back door as he leaned forward to hook a row of decorations in place.

"Good! We're almost done!"

"No, we aren't, Shoyo. Stop flinging that around and give me it. Nishinoya, for christs sakes, that's upside down."

Suga chuckled at the voices echoing from the backyard and pinned a few strings of lights to the ceiling. He knew that the back yard decorations would be fine because Keiji was overseeing the other two, less productive, Omegas. He was also certain that the the front porch would be done on time, seeing as Yachi had taken the liberty of volunteering for the job. She was both creative and prompt in her work-- her Alpha mother was a successful artist herself. He was beyond thrilled that Yachi was excited to partake in the festivities-- he just hoped that things wouldn't become _too_ overwhelming for her. She had made so much progress in the last few weeks.

"DONE!" Oikawa cried, hopping down from the dining room table to strike a dramatic pose."See! I told you that I would beat you sugar momma~~"

"Shotty job, Oikawa," Keiji drawled out as he waltzed through the back door with the bouncing figures of Shoyo and Nishinoya hot on his tail.

"How cruel!"

"It's not cruel. You did a shotty job."

"Keijiiii," Suga called out, interrupting the nestmates from their bickering. "Could you help out Yachi on the front porch? I think the guys will be back soon."

"Too late! I'm already done!" Yachi exclaimed with a squeak as she walked through the oaken front door. Suga watched as she kicked off her pink converse on the front mat and let out a sigh of relief from her job well done. His heart swelled to immeasurable lengths when her calm, joyous scent washed over him-- she was healing and he loved every second of it.

**Daichi~**

Daichi and the Alphas walked towards their yellow home, bantering about their beer pong teams and who could drink the most. Dusk was rapidly descending upon the neighborhood, basking the environment deep hues of orange. When he noticed the pink lights wrapped carefully around the banisters of the porch, he knew that the Suga had led the Omegas on a surprise decoration of their home.

Tanaka stopped short of the front door to read the banner hanging above. "Fly to win! Fuck, that's a good catch phrase...we should use that!"

"Where did they even get the paint from?" Kuroo questioned as he adjusted a brown bag of liquor in his arms and glanced up at the painted blue words.

"Full of surprises, as usual!" Asahi chimed in with a beaming smile as he poked at the pink lights on the railings. "Ten bucks says that Yachi chose this colour."

"You're only saying that 'cause she's the only girl in the house!" Tanaka chirped back, jabbing the bunned giant playfully in the ribs.

"No! Her aura is pink!"

"Her aura? You read _auras_ now?" Hajime drawled, skeptically rolling his dark eyes. "Why am I not surprised."

"Can we pleeeeeeease go into the house and start drinking now? Jesus, we just beat Date Tech!" Bokuto whined, jumping from foot to foot in anticipation. "Let's gooooooo celebrate!"

The Alphas piled into the yellow house one by one and, upon entering, Daichi was momentarily stunned in place. The entire living room roof housed strings of white lights that made the room look like a shimmering planetarium. He glanced over to the dining room and admired the crown molding, now fitted with paper cut outs of cherry blossoms. The archway to the kitchen was outlined with light blue twinkling lights, and more strings of paper flowers were hanging throughout the room's confines. Even the stair banister had light yellow lights entwined around it, illuminating the normally dark stairwell.

"This is, by far, the _best_ decorations we have ever had for a party," Tanaka said in awe, nodding vigorously in approval. The other Alphas murmured their agreements and Daichi noted that even Tsukishima and Tobio seemed pleased.

"Wooooow," Bokuto called out, grabbing Tanaka playfully by the neck. "Your house is _so_ much cleaner, and smells muuuuch better than the last time we were here!"

"That's only because _your_ house is such a pig sty," Tsukishima lazily chirped back, raising an eyebrow in provocation. "Any house would be cleaner than yours."

"Why you little-" Yuji quipped with a hot growl and moved forward to tackle the tall, snarky Alpha will ease.

"OI!" Daichi bellowed out, interrupting the lighthearted brawl. "Stop fighting so we can get this party started!"

*******

When Daichi smelled Suga's presence, he polished off his light beer and followed the enticing scent to the entryway. As the Omega descended the stairs, he nearly fell over from a heart attack-- the silver boy's scent and appearance were absolutely stunning. He delicately waltzed down the stairs in a white shirt, light blue jean jacket, and black jeans, but it was the confidence he exuded that caught Daichi's breath in his throat.

"You know, normally when people wear that kind of get-up, they look badass. But somehow, you make it look sweet," he said quietly, receiving a playful slap on the shoulder in return.

"Hey, I may not be as fashionable as Oikawa, but I can get it done when the occasion calls for it," Suga replied with a smirk, his tone playfully salty.

All Daichi could do was nod in response. He wanted to simultaneously admire the silver Omega from a far and take his clothes off to fuck him.

"C-can I get you a drink?" He stuttered, shaking away his lewd thoughts-- _they would have to wait for later._

"Definitely. The last time I had alcohol was at my high school graduation!"

"Wait, really?"

Daichi was shocked. Alcohol was a normal part of his University life and he couldn't imagine how someone could manage their anxiety without it. It helped him to occasionally let loose and forget the stresses of school.  _How did the Omegas get along without it? Their lives were already ten times more stressful..._

"Well, there aren't exactly a lot of situations where Omegas can drink safely," Suga stated plainly as he adjusted his jacket on his narrow shoulders.

"Oh...right," Daichi faltered, finding himself unhappy, yet again, with the living conditions of the Omegas. "Well, let me get you something delicious then!" He finished with a tone of forced happiness, willing himself to ignore his frustrations.  _Just one night without those unpleasant thoughts,_  he prayed to the universe, _just one._

He turned on his heels and walked towards the living room, passing by a chatty Oikawa and a very amused Hajime-- ganging up on flustered Bokuto. He chuckled under his breath and squeezed past the living room couch to walk into the dining room. The house members had stockpiled the booze on their dark, wooden ottoman against the back wall near the exit to the backyard. As he entered the area, a very eager Shoyo and, much to his surprise, Tobio were playing beer pong against team Asahi and Nishinoya. He sniffed the air, trying to ascertain the emotional status of the housemates. He really did need to learn how to set his captain hat down once in a while.

As he sifted through the fragrances, he realized that Tobio smelled... _animated._  The setter's face was plastered with an animated look that he normally reserved for the volleyball court.  _Perhaps,_  Daichi pondered, _little Shoyo had something to do with the sullen Alpha's unusually elated mood._

"You moved the cup!" Shoyo yelled out across the plastic table. "I saw you! That's a re-throw for us! Tell them, Tobio!"

"You did! I saw it move," Tobio agreed loudly, pointing aggressively at his opponents. "Give us the damn ball back!"

"We did not!" Asahi whined back and Nishinoya held the ball protectively against his chest, shaking his head.

"REF!" Shoyo cried out to a very serious looking Tanaka, positioned against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest and a beer in hand.

"Cup was moved! Give the ball back, Nishinoya."

Nishinoya ground his teeth and rolled the ball back across the table. "Aw, C'MON REF!" He complained, throwing his head back in a dramatic fashion.

"As I have written, so shall it be done," Tanaka angelically replied, placing his hands out before him in prayer.

Daichi smiled at the affair and continued watching the amusing game for a few minutes before continuing on his original quest. His eyes grazed over the present liquor, taking in the stock  =of the makeshift bar.  _It was dwindling...fast._  But there was just enough for him to whip up a classic margarita. A recipe he had learned from his Alpha mother-- a very avid drinker herself. Once he was satisfied with his concoction, he poured it into a water glass. They were broke University students after all, they didn't have money to blow on expensive glassware.  _It's the taste the counts, not the presentation,_  he told himself as he waltzed back over to his beautiful Omega.

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto was drinking a large glass of light beer by the blue living room couch, watching an exchange between Hajime and an absolutely stunning, slender Omega. His curiosity piqued the moment he realized that chestnut haired boy was the source of Hajime's unusual scent-- the Alpha's fragrance had been distorted for nearly a week now. Bokuto couldn't help but have a vested interest in the affair, he wanted to know more about the yellow house Omegas--  _especially Keiji._

"What are you drinking?" Hajime asked, slight hints of worry lacing their way into his words. "Because you've had three already."

"Tequila sunrise~~" The Omega replied with a cheeky smirk before taking a small sip of his orange drink.

"Slow down turbo. You're going to get ahead of yourself," Hajime lectured, receiving a... _somehow beautiful_...frown in return.

 _If looks could kill,_ Bokuto thought to himself. Out of all the Omegas he had seen in the yellow house, this one was definitely the most aesthetically pleasing. The silver haired one, Suga, came in a close second, but for some reason, neither their scents nor their looks were enough to match his attraction to Keiji.

"What? Are you afraid that it's going to lower my _inhibitions_ and we'll have to leave the party early? I figured you would like that."

After seeing the chestnut Omegas looks and snarky attitude in action, Bokuto was certain that the boy had everything he needed in his arsenal to fully domesticate Hajime. His teammate was oozing a desire to mate, something he never thought possible of the snarky Alpha. Hajime had always been the most wild of their group-- especially when it came to fucking Omegas on their weekends out.  _Come to think of it...had Hajime slept with anyone during their night out the past weekend?_ Bokuto wasn't so sure anymore.

"What do you mean _lower_ your inhibitions," Hajime questioned, his brows furrowed in confusion. "You'll get sloppy?"

 _Jesus, Hajime was so blind to what his Omega was insinuating--_  Bokuto had to intervene. He had to poke a bit of fun at his friend's idiocy.  _How could he not?_

"Hajime," he barked, taking a swig of his beer as he strode over to the pair. "It's fucking _common_ _knowledge_ that alcohol makes Omegas horny."

"Right," the chestnut Omega asserted, jerking a thumb in his direction. "What the owl haired one said."

Hajime paused for a moment, eyes darting between Bokuto and the Omega, before a knowing smirk flickered across his face. "Okay, yeah, drink more then. You want another one? I'll go get one if you want?"

If Hajime's shift in personality wasn't abundantly clear to Bokuto before, it certainly was now. Sure, his teammate definitely still retained his sex-drive, but the guy seemed... _happier._  Suddenly, he only had eyes for the slender Omega at his side and Bokuto could tell that the feeling was definitely mutual.

_Did he want this kind of relationship with Keiji? Could he even have this kind of relationship with Keiji?_

"Oh relax," the chestnut Omega drawled, bumping Hajime in the shoulder. "I was going to sleep with you tonight anyways. AND, if I wasn't, no amount of liquor would have changed that."

Bokuto burst out laughing at the perfectly snappy remark.  _What kind of Omega was this guy?_  He mentally pulled out his previous conversation with Tanaka and Hajime at the bar-- the pair had said something about a mouthy Omega... _what was his name again?_ _Oikawa! Man,_  he thought with a sly chuckle,  _mouthy didn't even cover it._  He had never heard an Omega chastise an Alpha so readily before, and he knew that it has nothing to do with their relationship status. There was no doubt in his mind that the chestnut boy was mouthy with _everyone_ , regardless of status. It was almost as if he was an Alpha-- an Alpha with excellent taste in clothing.

"Wow," he exclaimed, directing himself to Oikawa. "How the fuck did you make a turquoise shirt and grey sweatpants look so fashionable?" He finished with wide, yellow eyes-- he was never one to sit on a compliment.

When Hajime let out a low, territorial growl in response to the remark, Bokuto began to take a step back, but found himself stalled in place by a delicate hand on his shoulder.

"Hajime," Oikawa said saltily, patting Bokuto with a reassuring hand. "Learn the difference between a flirtatious remark and a compliment."

 _Bokuto loved this kid!_  The snarky Omega liked to see Hajime squirm just as much as he did.

"Yeah, Hajime," he saucily added. "Learn the difference."

"Hey, wait a minute..." Oikawa started, turning to face him with questioning, brown eyes. "You're that Alpha that's been sneaking around with Keiji! I knew that you smelled familiar! Man, you've been on his tail lately, what's that about?" He declared loudly with a toothy grin, pointing a finger into his surprised face.

 _Oh, shit. He was hoping he could keep his little...experiment with Keiji a secret._  At least, until he could figure out what the _fuck_ was going on with his flared up instincts and irritating feelings.

"Oh, reaaaaaaally," Hajime drawled, overly happy to jump onto the interrogate Bokuto train. "Please, tell me more, Oikawa."

"Yeah! haven't you smelled him on our Omega love child?"

"Come to think of it...I have. What have you been doing, Bokuto?"

"Eyeing our precious Keiji~~"

"Sneaking around with an Omega~~"

"Definitely sneaking!"

"Like some Omega burglar~"

"Holy shit," Bokuto exclaimed, throwing his hands up dramatically into the air. "Are you guys mated already? Jesus christ. You sound like a married couple...or a creepy pair of twins. I want to punch you both in the face."

"How rude~~" Oikawa exclaimed, placing a delicate hand over his heart, feigning hurt feelings.

"Oikawa, don't mind, don't mind. He's just projecting to protect his self image," Hajime said, flashing a knowing smirk at the owl Alpha. "I'm the one who taught him that particular technique."

"You know who else does that?" Oikawa elaborated, taking a small sip of his orange drink. "Keiji!"

"Wow," Hajime cackled, nearly spilling his amber beer on the hardwood. "A perfect match! When's the wedding?"

Bokuto rolled his eyes and tried to shake away his internal irritation-- he did not like the route the conversation had taken and he could feel a pout setting in.

As if sensing his souring mood, Hajime gave him a playful _get out of your funk_ shove. "Why don't you just talk to him?"

It wasn't like Bokuto didn't _want_ to talk to Keiji. He had been dreaming about the icy Omega all week and, more than once, he had felt a strange, creeping feeling of emptiness twist inside his gut. It was a feeling that he had begun to associate with the absence of an appealing metallic scent. When it came to Keiji, he found himself baffled. He never had any trouble talking to people before, especially to Omegas, but something about the snarky Omega made him very nervous-- so nervous that he was certain that he was going to vomit any time they engaged in conversation. _And...it was only getting worse._

"Does he make you nervous or something?" Hajime pushed on and Bokuto looked down as his glass of beer, giving away his feelings.

"Oh, don't worry!" Oikawa sang, giving him another friendly pat on the back. "You're not alone in that!"

Bokuto was glad for the chestnut Omega's tranquil scent. It was almost as mild as Keiji's, but he still found himself wishing that it smelled of cold metal instead of the ocean.

"He even makes _me_  nervous with his serious face and nonchalant attitude!" Oikawa continued with a sing song laugh that visibly melting Hajime. "I swear he had a heart deep down, under all that attitude, though."

"Iffffff…" Hajime faltered, clearing his throat-- instincts influenced by Oikawa's sudden burst of scent. "If you would just talk to him, this would all be sorted out by now."

Oikawa gave his Alpha a skeptical look that could cut through platinum. "Oh really? And how long did it take for you to confess your feelings for me~~"

Bokuto released a not-so-subtle snicker. _At least he wasn't the only Alpha around here who found himself stumped when it came to the flock._

"Shut up, Oikawa. You didn't say anything either," Hajime huffed back, tearing his gaze away as he took another sip of his dwindling beer.

"It's the _Alpha's_ job to ask the Omega out~~" Oikawa rattled off flirtatiously, jumping onto Hajime's unsuspecting form.

"You're buying into a stereotype! You're so two-faced. You always give me shit for treating you like an Omega!" Hajime retorted, palming Oikawa playfully in the face. "You can't say that kind of shit!"

The chesnut boy smiled, then kissed Hajime sweetly on the cheek. "This is true~~ Bokuto, why don't you talk to Daichi or Kuroo about this? They're more sensitive about this kinda stuff than this lug," he suggested, jerking a thumb at the grumbling Alpha in his arms.

"Yeah, I guess I could..." Bokuto said quietly, losing himself to his thoughts.

Daichi would _never_ give him shit for his complicated feelings-- that's just not how the captain was. Plus, Kuroo had the longest standing relationship out of their group.  _Maybe it would be a good idea to talk to them._

"Hey, even Hajime went to Daichi for advice about me!" Oikawa chimed in once more, making up Bokuto's mind for him.

He would try to gather up the courage to talk to Keiji of his own accord, and if that failed, he would get some recon from his two Alpha teammates.

"OIKAWA! DO YOU EVER CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!" Hajime yelled, grabbing his Omega by the shirt and shaking him none too playfully. "YOU'RE SUCH A PEST!"

"You know that I don't~~" Oikawa chirped back, his limp form flopping around in Hajime's grip. "You  _love_ it!"

Bokuto burst out laughing at their affair. _Oikawa definitely brought the best out of his Alpha friend. He wanted something like that, too._


	13. Yellow Energy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, I’ve been reading over the chapters I’ve posted and ThERE ARE SO MANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS. Especially when it comes to POV (my use of “he” vs. the name of the person. So I’m going to slowly update them to fix it, because it’s going to drive me insane if I don’t.
> 
> That being said, now that I am aware of the problem, hopefully all the chapters going forward will be a bit better, but they'll still have issues...
> 
> PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT okkkk, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
> 
> Cheers, and thanks for reading :)
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Thirteen: Yellow Energy**

**Yachi~**

Yachi stood on the front porch, sipping her wine and enjoying the evening breeze. On her left, Yamaguchi sat beside a disinterested looking Tsukishima, but she knew that Tsuki was actually paying ample attention to the freckled hair boy-- even if it it didn't seem like it at first glance. Out of all the Alphas in the yellow house, the tall, blonde man was the one she had warmed up to the most. As she was acclimating to the environment outside of the nest room, his mild fragrance was the easiest for her to be around. While he was almost always impassive, she had learned very quickly that it was just a cover. He had a very pure heart. A heart that was growing more and more interested in Yamaguchi with each passing day.

"What are you watching on your phone?" The freckled Omega piped up in question, taking a sip of his punch.

Yachi shuddered, he was brave for drinking that mess. She had steered clear of Tanaka's  _concoction_.

"A volleyball video," Tsukishima drawled without looking up.

Yamaguchi pushed forward, unphased by the Alphas perceived disinterest in him-- able to see through the facade just as she could. "Hey...do you think you could show me how to do that?"

"Show you what?" The blonde boy lazily replied, finally breaking his gaze from his phone to push his glasses up on his slender face.

Yachi sniffed the air. Tsukishima's scent was unusually animated. It didn't matter how subtle his natural fragrance was, she had the best nose in the house-- _his sly interest in Yamaguchi was not going to slip past her!_

"The float serve...it was in that video you were watching," Yamaguchi explained quietly, pointing a slender finger at the small screen in the Alpha's hands. "Tanaka tried to show me how to do it a few hours ago in the backyard...but he's not very good at it..."

"Why do _you_ want to learn it? You don't play volleyball."

Yachi nearly recoiled at the intensity of Tsukishima's tone. He definitely used more force than he likely intended. She had quickly noticed that it was something that he struggled with--  _probably because he rarely interacted with people._ She giggled to herself. The pair had such a cute, silent attraction for one another.

Yamaguchi paused, momentarily disheartened by Tsuki's intense tone, but soon perked up in resolve. "Because, I _want_ to learn how to do it."

Tsukishima let out a small puff of air, then turned turned to face the Omega. As the pair met each other's gaze, Yachi's own heart fluttered at their invisible chemistry. "Fine," he conceded after a few moments before returning his attention back to the device in his hand.

Yamaguchi's scent whirled into the air, sweetening it with his joy. A small smile flickering across Yachi's lips when he shifted closer to the Alpha to observe the small images on the device. She couldn't help but notice how well their two scents coalesced but, more than that, Tsukishima always seemed to perk up with energy whenever Yamaguchi was around. She softly giggled again. Whenever she saw them together, they were never talking-- they just enjoyed each other's company in comfortable silence.  _They needed to be together_... _and there was no way that it was going to happen without an external push._ She decided, right then and there, that she was going to hatch a plan to make it happen.

A loud shout burst out into the night air from the entrance to the yellow house, tearing her from her internal plotting. "HEY! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU EVERYWHERE!"

She was instantly blown back by the powerful scent that accompanied the strong words. Subconsciously backing away from the source of the sound, she felt herself lose her footing, falling backwards towards the porch stairs.

 _Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no,_ her thoughts rushed forward as she prepared for impact, but a strong, and somewhat lanky, arm landed across her shoulder blades, pushing her back to safety at the edge of the stairs. Letting out a small puff of relief, she glanced over to see that Tsukishima had swiftly moved to catch her from her tumble, dropping his phone in the process. In two brisk movements, he was sitting once again, looking down at his device as if nothing had happened.

"YOU!" The obnoxious voice called out again, screeching into her waiting ears."You're the one! The one that I smelled!"

It irritated her to no end that loud noises still provoked her body to release a scent of fear without her conscious consent. Professor Miyo had told her that it would take a lot of time for her to regain control of her emotions, but it was all getting a bit ridiculous.  _Yes_ , she had acknowledged that she had experienced a large amount of trauma and  _yes_ , her body was reacting on it's own in an attempt to protect her _...but still._  Now that she was finally _ready_ to actually start the healing process, she had figured it would be... _a lot faster._   _Cut yourself some slack,_ Miyo's words echoed across her mind,  _you are interacting with the world again. Interacting with Alphas. These things take time._

"OI! Are you listening?!" The voice called out again, once again startling her with its intensity.

She glanced up to locate its source. _It was the blonde boy...the one from the volleyball game._ As her eyes took in his lean build, she suddenly realized that she hadn't noticed his pierced ears or spiked hair from so high up in the bleachers.  _He looked like a criminal!_

"Yuji," Tsukishima drawled, noticing the distressed fragrance Yachi had begun to seep out. "Relax your scent. You're like Tanaka, you both have _no_ self control."

Yuji glanced over to Tsukishima, then to Yachi, then back to Tsukishima once more.

"Are you guys together?!" He asked at last, ignoring the chastising comment with ease.

Yachi slowly blinked, stunned by the forwardness of the question. _Her...with Tsukishima? Did the pierced Alpha forget how to use his nose?_   _His Alpha scent was clearly lingering around Yamaguchi, not her!_ She quickly glanced at her freckled nestmate, furrowing her brows in question and recieved an astonished look in return. She couldn't help but giggle at Yamaguchi's shocked face-- he always looked funny when he was rattled.

"No," Tsukishima replied with irritation, not even bothering to glance up from his phone. " _Clearly_ , we are not together. Use your nose."

 _Apparently, nothing phases the guy,_  Yachi mused with a soft smile,  _not even a forward remark like that. He was almost a robot!_

"Good," the criminal Alpha stated plainly-- a strange response that Yachi didn't exactly understand.

_Good? Why was it good?_

"So," he continued, oblivious to the awkward air floating around the porch-- provoked by his previous remark. _"Your_ scent is what won us the game! I think I owe you a thanks!"

Yachi slowly nodded, but really, she had _no_ _idea_ what the crazy Alpha was on about. She sniffed the air again, trying to ascertain just what exactly he was thinking, but his scent hit her with such intensity that she once again subconsciously stepped back into the empty air behind her. Tsukishima casually caught her once more, this time without looking up from him phone-- expecting her clumsiness.

"Can you not tell that your scent is overwhelming them?" He sighed, placing Yachi in a safer location on the porch-- away from the dangerous stairs. "You're frightening her. Don't tell me that you can't smell the fear..."

Yuji's head swiveled between her and Yamaguchi a few times before his light eyes widened with understanding. "Aw, _shit_. Did I just make the worst first impression?!" He whined, genuinely upset with himself.

Suddenly, he took a lurching step forward and Yachi immediately backed against the railing, consciously trying to scramble away from his intense energy. He stopped nearly a foot away from her and crouched down, holding himself at her eye level. Under most other circumstances, she would not have hesitated to look away, especially from an Alpha as close to her as he was. However, she found herself lost in his hazel stare-- he had lovely chocolate eyes that exuded an unfounded determination. She found him... _attractive._ Even his scent, though forceful, was appealing.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the pierced boy straightened back to his full height. Then, he pointed a long finger at her and smirked. "Let me try again! One more chance! I'm going to go inside, and then I'm gonna come back out here and try again! Just hang on a second!"

 _Try...again? Try what again?_ Yachi watched on with sudden interest, from her stiffened position against the railing, as the fanatic boy quickly turn on his heels and re-entered the front door of the yellow house. When he didn't immediatly return, she glanced over at Yamaguchi in question and received a lazy shrug in reply. For a few moments, she remained in place, picking at the skin of her fingers until her curiosity got the best of her. Slowly moving away from the porch banister, she took a few tentative steps towards the oak door.  _Was he...was he coming back?_ A millisecond later, she had her answer. The door in front of her opened and a blonde head peeked out, flashing a toothy grin.

As Yuji stepped back out onto the porch, his scent flooded into her breathing space once more, but this time, she found herself better able to stomach it. Not because it was weaker than it had been before-- it was as if her body was slowly acclimating to its intensity.

"Oh, _hello_ there!" Yuji sang out as he softly closed the door behind him. "We haven't met yet, have we? My name is Yuji. What's yours?"

Yachi's mouth parted in a small gap and she remained quietly flabbergasted for a moment before the blonde Alpha's lopsided smile pulled her into the humorous act. "Y-Yachi! I'm...Yachi," she replied, much louder than she intended. She internally cringed at her words-- she sounded like she was introducing herself in front of an entire class of peers.

The blonde Alpha took a few steps closer and once again leaned down in front of her small form. "Is my smell any better?" He whispered, scowling in Tsukishima's direction through narrowed eyes. "I'm trying, but it's _so_ hard. I've never had to do this before."

"Uh, yes! Much better!" Yachi replied in a high pitched voice. It was not better, but she didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise. Plus, she was getting used to its... _wild nature._

"It's not," Tsukishima droned from his position on the far side of the porch. He and Yamaguchi had relaxed themselves swinging bench and had resumed watching videos on the Alpha's phone.

Yachi froze, her eyes widening with guilt.  _Tsukishima had outed her lie!_

"Oh, YACHI!" Yuji dramatically called into the air, rolling his head back in feigned exasperation. "How am I going to learn if you don't tell me the truth?!"

"Ah- I'm sorry!" She stammered back, internally chastising Tsukishima for outing her little white lie.

Yuji took a step back and leaned against the siding of the house, a few feet in front of her. He flashed her a cheeky smirk that was almost flirtatious and her heart did a somersault. The pink lights she had strung up earlier illuminated his sharp features in a softer light and butterflies skittered through her stomach when she noticed just how toned his lean figure was-- hidden beneath his vivid orange shirt.

"You are seriously _adorable_ when you're nervous," the blonde Alpha declared with a wink.

His lazy eyes looked hungry and his scent made it very, very clear to Yachi that he was interested in her. She wasn't sure where his interest in her came from, or _what_ his intentions were, but she was pleasantly surprised to find that she wasn't frightened of him. Actually, she held a similar level of curiosity for him. She wanted to see more of his outgoing personality and she found herself inhaling his scent in larger portions.

"Um- thank you!" She squeaked in reply, feeling her cheeks flush from her internal thoughts. She cursed herself for not listening to Suga's most recent lessons about scent suppression-- hopefully _the Alpha wouldn't notice her curious fragrance._

Yuji crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her down for a moment, stalling her in place with his all-consuming aura. "So, Miss. rose, " he said, breaking the intense silence, much to her relief. "This is my formal thanks for being at our game today. If you hadn't been there, I wouldn't have made that last save that won us the set!"

Yachi was supremely perplexed by the statement. _What on earth was he on about?_  When she didn't respond, Yuji's infectious smile widened. "That last play, remember? When I stuck my foot out? I was only able to do that thanks to you."

Yachi felt her jaw drop slightly and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Um...how did I help...exactly?"

The blonde Alpha granted her with a cheeky wink and she felt herself internally melt at the cheesy action on his angular face. "I was pretty sure that there was no way I could get to the ball in time...and then I smelled you," he explained, furrowing his brows in reflection. "Time just slowed down and I was able to make it there in time. It was the only reason I was able to keep the ball up."

Yachi found herself growing in excitement at his words-- Yuji had _smelled_ her. Her scent had _helped_ him-- _it had helped win the game!_  Chaki always said that she needed to reign in her fragrance, that it was disgusting for him to smell, but here stood an Alpha openly admiring it. She looked down at her pink socks and shifted her feet in embarrassment, unused to the positive attention from the gender she most feared.

"Oh, sorry. I hope I didn't say anything too forward…" Yuji said hesitantly, cocking his head to the side to better see her face. "Daichi gave me a whole lecture on the rules around Omegas. I guess we're not supposed to smell you guys without permission...and I kind of just admitted to you that I did," he finished, rubbing the back of his neck apologetically.

"Oh, no! It's fine. Really!" Yachi replied, frantically waving her small hands out in front of her. "You were so far away, it's not like it was intentional or anything. Plus, it would be ridiculous to expect you guys to not smell up at all...that would be...impossible...I think."

 _Actually...how had he smelled her from so far away?_   _Wait,_  she pondered ad she furiously bit down on her bottom lip,  _she had smelled him from the same distance. Why had she been able to smell him?_

"Okay, good!" Yuji said with a soft sigh of relief. "Hey! You don't have a drink! Do you want one?"

Yachi had only had one drink-- a glass of wine that Oikawa had practically forced on her. She had been very nervous about drinking around Alphas. She thought it wise to stay sober and on her toes. She knew that it wouldn't be wise to push herself, it had only been a week since she had more readily begun leaving the nest room, after all. Plus, her past experiences with Chaki didn't do her any favors. He used to pressure her into drinking, and it never turned out well for her. The more he drank, the angrier he became and she had been the lightning rod for that rage more times than she could count.

"I'll go get you one...hang on!" Yuji declared, tearing her away from her spiraling thoughts. "Don't go anywhere, okay? Stay right there," he finished, pointing at her as he entered the house once again.

Yachi stood there quietly for a moment, knowing that Yuji's unwitting intentions weren't done from a place of malice. He had just assumed that she was drinking like everyone else, nothing more. She glanced over to Yamaguchi and Tsukishima-- they were both too far away and too absorbed in each other's company to have heard her and Yuji's somewhat awkward exchange. She rolled her head back to eye the door, staring down it's oaken build, waiting for it to open once again. After a few moments, he thoughts shifted back to Yuji and she began a mental checklist of how he had made her feel.

Normally, strong Alpha scents invoked her body to release a defensive scent of fear, but she was growing comfortable with Yuji's faster than _anyone_ could have predicted possible. Even now, his lingering fragrance teased the air around her and she actually  _enjoyed_  breathing it in-- now that it was less powerful. His disregard for her personal space was something that most Omegas would be fearful of. Especially ones who, like her, had suffered from years of neglect and abuse. But for some reason, she found herself _wanting_ to be near him. His presence made her feel a natural calm that she had not experienced since in a long time. However, the most important thing she had realized was something that made her heart swell with hesitant hope-- Yuji's exhilarating presence somehow banished all thoughts of Chaki from her waking thoughts. Her past experiences with Chaki were always lurking in the deepest recesses of mind, ready to strike her when she least expected it. It didn't matter what she was doing-- sleeping, reading, eating, even nesting with the other Omegas, they were always there. _Until now_.

"Oh good, you didn't run away!" Yuji exclaimed, rattling her focus back to the real world. "I got you this...um...it's fruity...I think. I didn't really know what you wanted, and there isn't exactly a large selection left," he trailed off, handing her a glass bottle of fizzy liquid.

"T-this is perfect! Thank you!" She stuttered out, once again, louder than she had intended-- she wanted to throw a palm into her face.

Yuji took up his former position against the yellow siding in front of her and took a swig of his full beer. "So, Yachi. Tell me about yourself!"

"Um…" She started, unsure of what to say. She wanted to seem interesting, but she felt like she didn't really have a lot to offer. She was... _boring...that's what Chaki always-_

"Favorite color?" Yuji interjected her tumbling thoughts, banishing Chaki to the abyss once more.

"Pink, or, I guess like, a rose gold?" She answered truthfully-- colors that made her truly happy inside.

"Makes sense, since you smell like roses!" Yuji responded with a hearty laugh and his renewed scent wafted over to her in droves of fresh intensity. This time, she didn't take a step back.

_Roses. She smelled like roses. Chaki was a liar._

"What's, uh, what's yours?" She asked softly, her cheeks flushing with renewed delight.

"Yellow."

_Yellow definitely suited him. It was a loud, energizing, and unforgiving colour._

"So, do you go to school here?"

"Um, no," Yachi replied in nearly whisper and took a nervous sip of her beverage. "Well, _yes_. But I take all of my courses online."

"Oh cool! I bet you're a straight A student." Yuji exclaimed, cheersing the empty air with his bottle. "You definitely have that  _look_."

"Well...I wouldn't go that far-"

"Oh my god!" The blonde Alpha shouted at once-- thankfully, Yachi was finally used to his abrupt changes in volume. "You could help me study! Say you will, please? If my marks drop anymore I won't be able to play on the team until I get them back up!"

"Isn't...isn't the season over...now?"

"Well, yeah, but only for a few weeks! Which meaaaaaaans, a few weeks of intense tutoring from you!"

"S-sure, I don't know how much help I will be, but-"

"Great!" Yuji declared, happy to interrupt her. "That settles that!"

It did settle that. Yachi kind of  _wanted_  to tutor him. She _wanted_ an excuse to be around his invigorating energy... _and his stifling scent._ As they continued their chat in the pink tinted lighting of the porch, she found herself increasingly grateful for the Alpha's presence and her desire to know more about him grew exponentially. Each time he laughed, she felt her heart boom against her chest, threatening to burst out of her ribs. When she giggled at his cheeky remarks, she felt like her former self, not just a shell of it. Even Suga couldn't pull a laugh from her like Yuji seemed to be able to. His easy conversational skills were pulling her personality back from the abyss that Chaki had created, and she loved it.

However, she was still hesitant. Yuji was an Alpha. She hoped that being around him was affecting her in a positive way, but she knew that her PTSD from her time with Chaki was going to step in at  _some_ point and make things complicated again.

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa had polished off five tequila sunrises before he and Hajime partook in a game of beer pong, which they lost brutally to Tanaka and Bokuto. Now, he felt that it was safe to say that he was sufficiently feeling the effects of liquid courage.

"Oi," Hajime called out to him from the makeshift bar. "Do you need a refill?"

 _He most certainly did not_. The night was too young and drinking was a marathon, not a sprint.

"I'm good~~ I still have quite a bit of beer left from the game," he called back, raising his voice just enough to be heard over the music and array of voices in the living room.

He leaned forward, peeking behind the dining room wall to catch a glimpse of his Alpha. He was facing away, searching a blue cooler for a bottle of beer.  _Amber, no doubt,_ Oikawa thought to himself. Hajime had, on more than one occasion, complained that his friends mainly preferred light beer, forcing him to drink it whenever they got jugs. Oikawa took a moment to admire the muscles of the Alpha's back, which quickly shifted the bulge in his grey jeans when he turned around and began his confident stride back, beer in hand. He certainly had a large cock, a gift from nature that Oikawa was grateful for.

"Why are you acting so quiet. It's weird," Hajime asked through suspicious, narrowed lids as he stopped his domineering figure next to Oikawa.

"Oh, just admiring your physique…"

Hajime let out a husky snicker and took a swig of his beer. "You wanna go somewhere quiet for a bit?"

"I think it's a bit early to-"

"Get your head out of the gutter, you dipshit. I meant to...talk."

 _Talk? How drunk was his Alpha?_ Hajime wasn't exactly an avid conversationalist, especially when it came to feelings-- not that it really mattered to Oikawa. He could see beneath the surface of the boy pretty easily.

"Sure~~ lead the way Mr. Alpha." 

Hajime grabbed him by the hand and led him out onto the front porch, past the distracted Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, and into the yard. After walking over to the large oak tree and Hajime promptly sat down and leaned up against its bark. Oikawa followed suit, lowering himself to the ground across from the domineering Alpha. It had been a long time since he had felt grass on his palms-- _it was pleasant._

"How drunk are you?" Hajime asked, his eyes trailing down to Oikawa's moving hands, running along the tops of the natural blades.

Oikawa looked up, the moonlight shining down on his Alpha accentuated his strong jaw and stern eyes. "Tipsy, which is sufficient for the time being," he replied, taking another sip of his beer. "Why? How drunk are you?"

"Feeling the effects for sure."

The two sat in silence for a moment until Oikawa piped up with a question that had been nagging him for quite some time. The liquid courage gave him the guts to finally ask it.

"Um...so. What kind of stuff do you like? In bed, I mean."

Hajime choked, mid sip. "What?" He asked between coughs. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't make me repeat it, Hajime. You _know_ what I mean," Oikawa scoffed back before looking away in embarrassment. He hoped that the Alpha wouldn't be able to see his blushing face in the dim light. 

_He didn't blush. Ever. It really wasn't his thing._

"Wait," Hajime started, setting his bottle of beer down against the tree. "Like, what do I like during _sex?"_

"Yeah. I mean, my heat is in four days and I just thought I'd ask to make sure we have...some of the same sexual interests…" Oikawa replied, keeping his eyes fixed on his hands in his lap.

"I guess that makes sense. If we don't have similar tastes then-"

"So what are they? Your tastes."

"You really want to know?" Hajime asked with a raised eyebrow, fingers fiddling with a plucked strand of grass.

_At least he wasn't the only one who was nervous._

"Yeah, I'll tell you mine too, okay?" Oikawa offered, trying to alleviate some of the awkward tension around them.

Hajime looked up, eyeing him down with dark eyes for a few moments of silent contemplation. He knew that it was his Alpha's way of deciding if he was trustworthy with such personal information.

"I like to be the dominant one in bed. I like to be called...sir or master," Hajime said at last without breaking his intense gaze and Oikawa smirked--  _he had guessed this._

"So, you like to do the fucking."

"Yeah…"

"And what about _my_ pleasure?"

He was curious if Hajime was willing to expand his interests. No doubt calling the Alpha master and letting him fuck the shit out of him was a turn on, but he wanted to occasionally take the lead... _to switch things up every now and again._

"You wouldn't get any pleasure from that kind of sex?" Hajime questioned back, tossing a handful of plucked grass over his broad shoulder.

"Oh, I would. It turns me on just thinking about it..." Oikawa started and Hajime began to emit a primal, sexual scent at his honest words. "But sometimes, I want to be able to...be the one who's doing the work, you know?"

Hajime gave him a perplexed look and remained silent, brows slightly furrowed.  _Has the guy never had an Omega pleasure him? Was he always the one doing the work?_

"Okay," Oikawa offered, doing his best to come up with an explanation on such short notice. "Imagine it like me riding your cock. I'd be the one doing the work, right? That's what I'm trying to get at."

"That, I would enjoy," Hajime responded with a guttural growl, his sexual scent seeping out in strong waves, influencing Oikawa's inhibitions.

"Okay, okay!" Oikawa cried out, waving his hands out in front of him. "Relax! It's not like we can fuck right now. Stop doing that."

"Why. Not." Hajime replied, his words choppy and his tone primal- ready to pounce.

"Hajime!" Oikawa half-yelled, clamoring to his feet on the damp grass. "You are _not_ fucking me on the front lawn in _full_ view of the house!"

The Alpha took a few deep breaths, grabbed his beer, then stood up. As he took a confident step forward, Oikawa could feel the heat from his toned body wash over him. His own heart began to pound and he hurried to shove away his unwanted feelings of arousal.

"Just know," his Alpha whispered hotly into his ear, sending shivers through his body. "That later tonight, I'm going to _fuck_ you until you can't take it anymore."

"I can take whatever you dish out," Oikawa asserted softly, his own scent lacing itself with waves of desire. He couldn't help himself.

Hajime roughly grabbed his nipple through his turquoise shirt and twisted with the perfect amount of force. "I'll remember that statement," he snarled out possessively before taking a step back. Running a large hand through his short hair, he took another swig of his beer. "Now let's get back to the party before my knot becomes too large for me to handle."

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto had been keeping tabs on Keiji most of the night, but no amount of liquid courage was enough to make him approach. He bounced around the various chatting groups-- playing beer pong with Suga and Daichi, conversing with Shoyo, Tobio, and Tanaka, but he always kept his nose perked up for the blue eyed Omega.

He glanced down at his watch, 11:55 pm, time for another drink. He waltzed over to the bar in a hurry only to find that nearly everything was gone. Groaning under his breath, he pulled out a pink cooler. He wasn't looking forward to its sugary taste.. _.but maybe this one would give him the courage he needed._

"Wow! We are OUTTTT!" Tanaka yelled over his shoulder, slightly slurring his words. "OI! Suga! The night is still young! We need to hit up the liquor store!"

Bokuto smelled the silver haired Omega approach from behind. He pushed in between the two Alphas and let out a heavy sigh. Bokuto stiffened, not wanting Suga's close proximity to set off his captain--  _he was already on thin ice._

"Daaaaaaaaichiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Suga called over his shoulder, almost directly into Bokuto's ear. "We need to do a liquor run!"

"WHAT? We're out?" Daichi exclaimed from a few feet behind, seemingly uncaring of _his_ Omega's position-- wedged between two Alphas.

Oikawa poked a chestnut head out of the blue kitchen and smirked. "Probably because Asahi and Nishinoya played so much beer pong~~" 

"Heeeeeey! We played a few games, so what?" Nishinoya slurred from his position in Asahi's lap on the living room couch.

"Yeah, don't blame ussss," the bunned giant added, scenting the willing Omega in his lap.

"KurrOOOO!" Daichi shouted into the air, his drunken state making him uncharacteristically loud.

"WHAT!" Came a loud response through the door to the backyard. "What is it THIS TIME!"

"We gotta do a run," the captain replied as the rooster walked through the open door. "A liquor run."

"Goddammit," Kuroo grumbled with a very intoxicated Kenma perched on his back. "I hate that you made me the party mom. Look at all of you!" He continued, throwing his hands into the air with exasperation. "You're all loaded."

"Hey man, not true! I was reffin' the beer pong games," Tanaka retorted with a snort.

"Oh? And how many beers did you have while you were standing there  _reffing_?"

"Okay, I may have had a few…" The bald Alpha admitted, polishing off a shot with a smirk. "I'll volunteer to go to the liquor store, okay? Relax," he added, lightly punching the party mom in the shoulder to ease the tension between them.

"Actually, we have some booze stockpiled at our house…" Bokuto chimed in--  _it was the perfect an excuse to pull Daichi and Kuroo out with him and gather some intel on Keiji._

"No we don't! We brought most of it with us man," Yuji called over and Bokuto was quick to note that there was a small female Omega quite close to his blonde teammate's side. 

_W_ _hat on earth was going on there? Christ, even Yuji was better with Omegas than he was._

"I still have a bunch stocked in my room," he reiterated sternly, willing Yuji to shut up and not ruin his plan.

"Okay! Okay!" Kuroo shouted above the various conversations in the room. "Everyone SHUT UP. Tanaka, you and Tobio go to the liquor store and Daichi, you go with Bokuto to get whatever he has left."

"Uh, actually…" Bokuto said, shuffling over to the rooster with dejected shoulders. "I was kinda hoping that I could talk with _both_  you and Daichi about  _some stuff_ …"

Kuroo gave him an exasperated look, then sighed. "Okay, let me just put Kenma in our room. He needs to sleep off some of the booze," he chastised, flicking his Omega on the nose and receiving a soft whimper in response. "Then I can join you."

"I'm not going to the liquor store," Tobio drawled from his position by the stairs. "I am sufficiently drunk already. It doesn't make sense for me to go if I'm not drinking anymore."

"Oh how  _kingly,_  Tobio. Always thinking of others~~" Tsukishima chirped from the porch through an open window.

"SHUT UP, TSUKISHIMA!" Tobio snarled back with a pout until a bouncing Shoyo poked and prodded at his side, playfully pulling him from his glowering state.

"Okay, fine!" Kuroo barked out through gnashed teeth. "Hajime, you go instead."

Bokuto could tell that the rooster's frustration was rapidly increasing.  _The sad life of a sober watchman--_ he was thankful that the role wasn't his.

"Yeah, whatever," Hajime said from the entryway, stifling drunken yawn. "I'll go, it's fine."

"No way are you two going by yourselves. I'm coming along!" Suga chimed, his declaration receiving a low growl from the captain. "Daichi, shut up. They need someone who is at least _seeeeemi-sober_  to come along...if we want that liquor to come back in one piece." 

"Fine," Daichi ceded, grumbling under his breath-- unhappy that his Omega was leaving the house without his protection.

Bokuto admired that the captain felt comfortable enough in allowing other Alphas to accompany _his_ Omega without him there.  _They really were becoming some weird, hybrid pack._

He subconsciously perked up to hear Keiji's lazy voice add into the array of chatter. "Don't worry, Daichi. I'll tag along. Keep everyone in their place."

 _Keiji...going without him...going with the other Alphas_.  _Drunk Alphas._  He stifled a growl, willing himself to trust in his friends as Daichi had.

"By theeeeeeee way…" Asahi called from the couch, to no one in particular. "Noya and I are going to walk to the oceanfront park."

"What. Why." Kuroo barked in question, furrowing his brows with renewed irritation. "You think that's a safe choice? 'Cause I don't."

"Of course, man! With Asahi's huge body and my smoooooth combat skills, we'll be fine!" Nishinoya replied, waving a hand over his spiky hair in disregard.

Asahi rolled his head towards the rooster and slurred. "Yeah, Kuroo. Don't worrrrry. We'll be fine. We just wanna catch some crabs."

"Why the fuck do you want to drunkenly catch crabs at eleven o'clock at night," Hajime droned out with a  _what the fuck_ look plastered across his normally stern face.

"We both used to catch them as kids okayyyy, you sassy Alpha," Nishinoya chirped back from the couch, sticking his tongue out at Hajime's amused form.

"Fuck, okay fine. Just make sure you both have your goddamn phones," Kuroo barked, throwing his head back in resignation.

"Annnnnnnnnd SPRAY!" Suga yelled out, once again into Bokuto's hurting ear.

"You got it, Sugar Momma!" Asashi said cheekily, winking at the silver haired boy.

Seeing the bunned giant talk to Suga in such a relaxed fashion made Bokuto's heart swell. He wanted to be apart of this  _pack_. He  _needed_  to be.

"Wow~~ stealing my nickname?!" Oikawa chirped, pouncing the pair on the blue couch to tickle them mercilessly.

Nishinoya rolled off of the bunned Alpha and playfully tackled Oikawa into the couch cushions. "Trying to touch my Alpha ehhhhh, Oikawa? I don't think so! Feel my wrath!" The little spitfire poked back, jabbing the chestnut haired boy in the kidneys.

Asahi quickly crouched down at the side of the couch, grabbed Oikawa's hands, and used them to lightly smack his face. "Stop hitting yourself, Oikawa! Stop hitting yourself~~" He chirped, receiving an audacious laugh from Nishinoya.

"Hajimeeeeeee~~" Oikawa whined out dramatically. "Help meeeee!"

"Nope," Hajime affirmed, polishing off his bottle of beer and setting it down on the stairs. "You got yourself into that mess. I ain't doing anything."

Suga burst out laughing and Bokuto couldn't help but join in. A good-natured brawl between Alphas and Omegas was something that he had never witnessed before in his entire life. He had seen both lighthearted and savage scuffles between Alphas, but never a playful one that including both genders together. The fact that Hajime was completely at ease watching Asahi touch Oikawa blew his mind. At no point in time had he heard of an Alpha being okay with another one, friend or not, touching their Omega. Not even playfully. In fact, even getting too close to a mated Omega was known to cause physical altercations.

"Okaaaaaay, that's enough," Daichi declared, pulling Nishinoya's small form off of Oikawa by the back of his black shirt. "Go catch your stupid crabs."

"We will, _thank you_. Maybe we'll bring one back and put it in your bed…" Asahi said mischievously under his breath as Daichi plopped Noya onto the hardwood in front of him.

"What did you say? I swear to god, it you do anything…" Daichi growled jauntily, taking a step towards the bunned giant.

"I guess you'll just have to wait and see!" The spitfire Omega coyly remarked, flashing a toothy grin.

Daichi ruffled the boy's spiky hair. "If I find even one crab in my room, I'll repay you tenfold with a prank of my own. Mark my words."

"DAICHI, NO! You're speaking his language!" Suga yelled, flailing his arms above him as he ran over to the captain. "You'll start a prank war!"

"What, you think we can't take 'em?"

Suga flashed the captain with an impish grin. "Nah, you're right. We can take these punks!"

"Punks?! Sugar momma, calling me a punk?!" Nishinoya cried into the air and placed a small hand over his heart, feigning hurt feelings.

"You heard me! It's about time I got you back for all your antics!"

"YOU'RE ON!" Nishinoya declared, poking the silver Omega in the chest. "Asahi, you had better pull your weight around here! I have a reputation to uphold!"

"Awwwwww, Noyaaaa, that's so mean. Thinking I can't handle the pressure…" Asahi whined into the air, but smirked lazily.

"It's too late to change your team now!" Daichi chastised his opponents, playfully pinching Nishinoya's cheek. "Don't come crying to me when Asahi can't hack it!"

"Hey! We're gonna kick your ass!" The spitfire remarked, brushing away the captain's large hand in annoyance. "Don't you dare underestimate us!"

 _A prank war,_ Bokuto mused with shining eyes,  _he wanted to be a part of it too!_  As the night had progressed, he had found himself wishing more and more that he lived in the lively yellow house. Being around the various Omega scents and the genuinely cheerful Alphas made him extremely envious--  _he needed to talk to Daichi and Kuroo as soon as possible._


	14. Downward Trajectory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnnnd now we enter a downward trajectory of me being mean to my poor baby characters :( 
> 
> Thanks 4 reading! (Tobio/Tsukishima POVs next chapter).
> 
> (Edit #1 Complete)  
> (Fixed Kabuto continuity errors)

**Chapter Fourteen: Downward Trajectory**

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa rubbed his sore kidneys--  _that little brat, Nishinoya_. Although he was mildly irritated that the pair had beaten him in their playful scuffle, he couldn't help but worry about their well-being. Their trip to the ocean park in the middle of the night left him extremely nervous.  _Yes_ , Nishinoya was accompanied by the giant Alpha, but the pair were still very inebriated. The whole thing was just... _unwise_. He was definitely going to call Nishinoya in a few hours time, just to check in.

He glanced around. The house was strewn with empty bottles, cans, and more than a few sloppy spills- but otherwise empty of life. Tanaka, Keiji, Suga, and Hajime had gone to the liquor store and he wished that he could be a fly on the wall for their conversations. The four of them were an odd and seemingly entertaining match up. Especially if alcohol was involved.

Tsukishima was on the front porch with Yamaguchi, and Oikawa was momentarily perplexed when he noticed that his nestmate was sitting unusually close to the Alpha. He filed the information away, he would be interrogating the freckled boy about that later. His glassy eyes grazed over the remainder of the front porch and out into the front yard, where Tobio and Shoyo were tossing a volleyball beneath the giant oak tree.  _At least someone around here had the ability to keep up with the little twerp's energy,_ he thought to himself with a smirk. Yachi  _had_  made an odd comment earlier...that she could smell Tobio's desire for the ginger Omega. While Oikawa had been skeptical of her remark, he couldn't completely disregard it. The small girl did have the best nose in the house, after all. He narrowed his eyes, watching the pair through a front window- he would definitely be keeping tabs on Tobio from now on.

After a few minutes of motherly contemplation, Oikawa waltzed over to the back door, plucking a few empty cans on his way over to throw in the kitchen trash. Taking a swig of his dwindling beer, he watched the interesting developments unfolding before him- Yuji and Yachi. The two blondes were conversing on the back porch and he was pleasantly surprised to find that his little Omega angel looked _beyond comfortable_  to be there. He sniffed the air, nearly coughing at the intensity of the the pierced Alpha's scent.  _How on earth was she comfortable around that?_   _She could barely manage Tanaka's..._

 _Yuji's was in an entirely different league._  

He steadied himself against the wall, feeling dizzy from the exuberant scent, before sniffing again. It took a bit of effort to sift through the heavy fragrances in air, but when he finally located Yachi's, his heart swelled as its comfortable disposition. Then, he saw her laugh loudly at one of Yuji's cheesy remarks and a flood of happy tears pushed forward, threatening to spill over his long lashes. It had been over a year since he had heard her laugh. The blonde Alpha was pulling her out of her shell and Oikawa didn't have the faintest idea how-- but he was grateful for it.

He watched on for a few more minutes, polishing off his drink before placing it on the substitute plastic dining table. The house was a mess.  _An absolute mess_. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose-- he might as well clean up a bit while he waited for the party to come back. Pulling a out black garbage back from under the kitchen sink, he began to sluggishly collect up the mess, growing irritated that he was slowly but surely becoming the housewife of the household.

**Yuji~**

Yuji sat down on the wooden panels of the back porch. The Omegas had set up tiki torches throughout the yard and the flames softly illuminated the Yachi's delicate face, much to his liking. While he was upset that she was still hesitant around him, he was also grateful that he had been granted with the chance to meet her-- it had been a grand stroke of luck.

Her smell was absolutely intoxicating to him, but he had realized very early on that she was extremely cautious in sharing it...and he wasn't entirely sure as to _why_. Her clear reservations made him want to prove that she could trust him or, at the very least, be comfortable around him. He sighed and attempted to reign in his scent once more, but to no avail. He had never needed to do it before. In fact, he hadn't even _thought_ of doing it before today. Luckily, the rosy Omega seemed to be acclimating to its intensity, even if her scent was still clouded with anxiety.

Yuji had come to realize that her fear wasn't directed at him. It was almost as if there was something else, something creeping around in the the back of her mind, that had her subconsciously releasing the fragrance. It seemed to frustrate her. He could smell her scent warping about, constantly shifting from fear, to comfort, to curiosity, then back to fear-- as if she was consciously battling for control over it. He wanted to ask her about it, _really_ wanted to, but he was smart enough to know that it would be better to let her talk about it of her own volition.

On the few occasions that he had managed to make her laugh, her natural scent blew through the gross anxiety and blasted the air with an intense rosy fragrance that easily worked its way into his soul. Oftentimes, it was so powerful that he found himself happily drowning in it, but it was always gone as quickly as it had formed.  _Roses...it was like a drug._  Each time the scent came and went, he found himself trying even harder to make it return-- hitting her with joke after joke until he had nothing left. 

_Just one more taste...one more hit of roses._

"So...you like living here?" He asked, at long last breaking their uncomfortable silence. "At, um, the...with the Alphas?" He internally cringed at his awkward words. _Maybe the silence was better._

"I didn't at first, but now I...kind of like it," came her soft reply.

_At least she had stopped stuttering around him...a small victory._

"I guess it's kinda scary being around a bunch of big, burly Alphas all the time, eh?" He replied, rubbing the back of his head with his hand then flashing a cheeky grin of understanding.

When Yachi giggled at the honest remark, he quickly inhaled to catch the smell of roses before it dissipated. It had become apparent to him that being around Alphas made her very, very nervous.  _What could have happened to cause such an adverse reaction from her?_ Maybe Daichi could enlighten him. The captain and his silver Omega seemed to be the parental figures of the house... _he probably knew something useful._

"They aren't really that scary. A lot of them are big softies…" Yachi responded after her girlish giggles subsided.

As she reached up to take a sip of her drink, Yuji noticed a deep scar flash out from under her pink blouse.  _What a violent gash...how far did it run up her arm? Perhaps,_  he thought in an attempt to lie to himself,  _it was a childhood accident?_

Deep down, he knew that it was an Alpha. _It had to have been._  He wasn't blind to the goings on in the world, but he had never really cared about the Omega condition.. _.until now._  Something about Yachi pulled forth guilty feelings and made him immensely uncomfortable in his own skin. At that thought, a quiet, throaty grumble began to work its way into his throat and his instincts began to flicker across his mind-- commanding him to pull the tiny girl into an embrace, check over the old wound, and ensure that it had healed properly.

_And kill whoever had caused it._

"I-" Yuji started to ask about the scar, unable to fight back his instincts, but found himself cut short when an unfamiliar set of scents whisked into his nostrils. 

_Alphas._

"Heeeeeeey, how's the party up in here. It smells delicious~" A deep voice called from across the backyard.

He clamored to his feet and snapped his head in the direction of the sound. Three large men hopped the white fence with ease and walked across the yard towards the back deck... _threats?_  

Suddenly, an all-consuming scent of fear exploded into the air with such force that he was physically blown back a few steps. He hurried to cover his nose with his hand and grazed his eyes over to its source... _Yachi_. Her small figure was frozen in place, all colour drained from the delicate features of her face. He watched in slow motion as her grip relaxed around her wine and the glass dropped down to the patio boards, sending shards in every direction that tinted the baseboards red with its contents.

"Yachi, are you-" He tried to ask, but was cut short when the petite girl keeled over and let out a series of retches that culminated in a staggering amount of vomit.

"Oh my dearest Yachi, it's been a while, hasn't it?"

Yuji whipped his head around to face the source of the snide comment, instincts flaring up in his chest.

"Oh, baby, don't cry. I know you missed me," a black haired man cooed. The tone of his voice a twisted mix of hostility and care-- sickly sweet and manipulative.

Yuji took two swift side steps to stand in front of Yachi, ignoring the broken glass that cracked beneath his white Nikes. "What is your business here, gentlemen. This is a private party," he asked with a slight growl of hostility before placing a hand on the blonde Omega's shaking back.

He quickly sniffed the air, trying to sift through Yachi's overwhelming anxiety-- he needed to assess the intruders. After asserting that the three Alphas standing before him were all very dominant in their own right, he realized that wouldn't be able to take them on by himself. He might be spontaneous and quick to action, but he wasn't stupid. Worse yet, his quick analysis had alerted him to an even more pertinent issue-- they weren't the only unknown Alphas on the property. There were four more scents mixed in with Tsukishima, Tobio, Yamaguchi, and Shoyo in the front yard. He was not going to get any back up. He was on his own.

 _What was the most effective course of action?_  His instincts were roaring to protect the blonde Omega at his side and he was going to do just that.  _Outlast them._  Keep the tone of the conversation as light as possible. Continue the verbal exchange until his teammates returned.  _Do not engage in combat._

"You don't smell very strong…" Another Alpha, one with ugly black tattoos, stepped forward and asserted in challenge. "I'd be careful if I were you."

 _Was that...a warning?_ The tone was _strange_ , but regardless, Yuji didn't fall for the chirp. He needed to keep the conversation light. "You're trespassing on our property. I think it would be best for you to leave," he stated with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"C'mon man, it's pretty common knowledge around here that there are a bunch of single Omegas living with you guys. We heard the music and thought we'd stop by for the party!" The final Alpha, one with long blonde hair, sang out in sickly innocent tone. "We mean no harm."

Yuji ignored him, refusing to take his eyes off of the one who had spoken first. The one who was manipulating Yachi. The man's scent put him on edge. There was something about him... _no..._ about _all_  three of them that was off. The black haired Alpha had spoken to Yachi like an old friend and, judging by her horrific reaction, their past interactions had not been pleasant.

The more Yuji pieced together the information, the more his blood began to boil with unchecked fury. A deep pang shot through his gut, prompting his instincts to screech out their concessions inside his head.  _Did this Alpha hurt Yachi? Did he give her that scar? Was he the reason she was so afraid?_  Suddenly, Yuji wanted nothing more than to snap the manipulative Alphas neck and claw into his defunct brain. When the devious man took a confident step forward, he growled out another threat. He knew that he was outranked in dominance, but that had never stopped him from scrapping things out in the past-- and he was not about to start now.

"Yachi, why don't you come with me? I'll take care of you," the black haired Alpha remarked in a lighthearted tone, ignoring Yuji's hostile scent with ease. "You know I will. It will be just like old times."

When Yuji heard an audible sob roll into the silent air from next to him, he glanced down at Yachi who, much to his horror, shook her head in response.  _A nod? Why would she want to go with him?_ His instincts coiled around in the deep recesses of his stomach, alerting him that the situation was not what it seemed.  _She is unable to stand up against the manipulative Alpha on her own,_  they roared inside his skull, abused _. The scar. Do. Not. Let. Him. Touch. Her._

"Yachi, that's good baby. I'm glad you want to come back to me," the manipulative man continued, fully ignoring Yuji's now continuous snarling. "Come over here so I can protect you. It was wrong of you to leave me. It broke my heart."

At the manipulative words, Yuji's instincts grew even louder, crashing into him like a ocean waves. While his feral spirit ran rampant, his logical mind devolved into panic set in. The black haired Alpha _knew_ that he couldn't possibly take on all three intruders in a brawl. He was no better than a yappy guard dog-- all bark, no bite. Worse yet, Yachi's acceptance of the manipulative man threw his entire plan of _buying time_   right into the gutter. He couldn't fight them. He couldn't verbally keep their attention on him. He couldn't stop Yachi from walking off with them of her own accord.

He was effectively in check mate.

"I-I'm so s-sorry I l-left, please forgive me," he heard Yachi stutter out quietly from beside him, breaking off pieces of his heart with every tragic word.

When she took a small, hesitant step forward, he mirrored her movements-- he was not about to give up yet. He didn't care if his face got smashed in by the three Alphas-- he would fight them, head on, with everything he had before letting her go with them.

"What the fuck are you doing here," a vicious snarl called out from the back door of the yellow house and Yuji's panic slightly subsided. 

He didn't turn around to look at the voice's owner. He knew it wasn't an Alpha snarl, it was a very human one.  _Oikawa._ In mere moments, the chestnut boy had moved swiftly across the porch to stand protectively at Yachi's other side. He was relieved to have backup. From what he had heard from his teammates, the beautiful Omega was pretty well-versed in combat.

"Oh, Oikawa!" The tattooed Alpha, with startling blue eyes, called back in response. "It's been ages. You're looking as _beautiful_ as ever."

 _So,_ Yuji thought to himself, gnashing his teeth in frustration _, the intruders knew Oikawa, too. Did they know ever member of the flock?_

"Leave. Now," Oikawa barked at the Alphas, vicious rage pouring off of him in droves and pooling into the air around them.

"That's no way to treat your long lost friends, Oikawa!" The tattooed intruder chirped back lightly with an undertone of hostility... _and something else...affection? Damaged ego?_  "I know you miss my knot filling your tiny ass."

The nasty comment prompted a tense silence that Yuji filled with a displeased growl that was dangerously close to a roar.  _What the fuck did he just say? Oikawa had slept with one of these monsters?_

"Fuck _off_ , Kabuto," the chestnut Omega seethed back, jabbing a finger at the tattooed man. _Kabuto. "_ Shut the fuck up."

Going on Oikawa's reactionary scent.. _.and language._..Yuji could tell that it their relationship was not exactly a consensual endeavor. The thought of the yellow house Omegas being abused by the monster Alphas standing before him, pushed his mind to the edge of sanity-- but his logical mind didn't completely understand the feelings. _He barely knew the nest...why was he feeling so protective?_

He clenched his fists, drawing blood from his palms, and willed himself to calm down. Even with Oikawa, they were still one person short of an even fight-- and Yachi was in no shape to defend herself. Mentally or otherwise. If they attacked unnecessarily, it would result in either injury or death for him, and likely more than just physical damage for the two Omegas-- he could smell the disgusting hints of arousal the intruders were leaking into the yard.  _Not. Going. To. Happen._

When the black haired Alpha took another step forward, he felt Yachi stiffen next to him and he instinctively snarled out once again.

"Yachi, just come over here baby. If you say that you're sorry, I'll forgive you. I promise."

Oikawa swiftly moved to the edge of the porch, visibly shaking in anger. "Yachi, do not listen to this fucking knothead," he spat at the dominant Alpha through clenched teeth. "He's a _monster_. He doesn't deserve to walk this earth."

Yuji didn't know what to do. He was torn between verbally backing up the chestnut Omega or doing so with his scent. When his instincts rattled off inside of him once more, his decision was made for him.  _Better to stand guard. He didn't know the intruders. The Omegas did. Have Oikawa's back. Show them._  Moving forward to stand at the porch's edge, he let out another throaty rumble to vocalize his decision.

"I'm sorry, Chaki. I'm so sorry," Yachi mechanically droned-- an emotionless response that stirred inside Yuji's soul. "I'll be good, I promise. I'll do anything you want just please forgive me. I'm so useless. I'm sorry."

"Yachi stop-" Oikawa started to command over his shoulder, but was quickly interrupted by the manipulative man.  _Chaki._

"Baby, you know I could never stay mad at you. Come over here. Let me give you a hug. You can make it up to me later. You know that it was wrong of you to leave me."

Yuji wanted to annihilate him. Wanted to pound him into the ground with his fists. Slash out his throat to stop him from talking. Rid the earth of his filth.  _He would silence him. He would kill him...but not yet._ He shook his head, doing his best to retain even a shred of sanity. He couldn't let his instincts take over, not until the odds shifted in their favor.


	15. Both Quiet and Vicious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am somewhat happy with this portion of the work…. :) (probs still some grammar issues). 
> 
> Goodnight readers! Sleep tight
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Fifteen: Both Quiet and Vicious**

**Tsukishima~**

Tsukishima was lounging on the front porch, beer in hand, when he smelled a set of unfamiliar Alphas. He tore his gaze from his phone and craned his neck back to glance out into to front yard. 

_Four…hostile...and they weren't just passing by._

"Yamaguchi…" He said quietly to the boy seated beside him as he rose to his feet. He could smell the Omega's confusion at his protective scent... _the freckled boy really didn't have a very keen nose._  "Stay behind me" he commanded, moving towards the porch steps.  _This was going to be such a pain._

He was somewhat thankful, though he would never admit it, to see that Tobio was already aware of the intruders. The king stood on the grass, bristling with hostility as he guarded the steps to the veranda. Tsukishima joined him in the front yard, briefly glancing behind him to ensure that the Omegas were staying back on the defensible structure of the porch. Yamaguchi was frozen in place on the left side near the patio swing where he had left him. He could tell that the freckled Omega was doing his utmost to keep his scent under control, even if he was physically shaking in fright. Shoyo was stalled near the front door directly behind, either uncaring or unable to reign in his own sickening scent of anxiety-- his wide eyes darting between the intruders and the phone in his small hands. After a few quick seconds, he began frantically texting, smartly alerting their absent roommates to the situation.  _Good idea_ , Tsukishima thought with a small nod, but again, he would never admit it.

Raking his gaze back to the approaching Alphas, he did some quick mental math.  _If the group that had gone to the liquor store received Shoyo's text in the next few seconds...and ran full speed back without any distractions...it would probably take around eighteen minutes. Perhaps..._ _fifteen for Keiji,_ Tsukishima pegged him as fast runner. _The three that had gone to Bokuto's house would take just over twenty...no...twenty three minutes for owl and the captain...they were fairly inebriated...and nineteen for the sober Kuroo._

He rolled his tense shoulders to loosen them, the best option in his mind was to stall. There was no way they could handle the four Alphas on their own, especially if they wanted to protect the Omegas behind them. He prayed that his idiot teammate was smart enough to figure that out on his own-- if Tobio suddenly decided to jump in to unnecessarily attack, they would be in big trouble.

"Hey," Tobio growled out to the approaching Alphas, releasing his dominant scent into the night air. "What the fuck do you think you're doing."

"Smelled some Omegas and booze. Thought it would be nice to check it out," an intruding Alpha, one with short brown hair and the most dominant scent, responded curtly.

"It's invitation only," Tsukishima drawled as the figures stopped themselves on the lawn a few meters in front of them. "I don't remember _you_ being on the list."

"I don't think we are really _asking_ for permission," the brunette man chirped back, lifting a thick eyebrow in challenge.

Tsukishima casually sniffed the air, trying to ascertain the motives of the intruders. It was definitely a raid,he could sift out three more unknown Alphas in the backyard alongside the scents of Oikawa, Yachi, and Yuji. 

 _These men had definitely timed their attack,_  he thought to himself in frustration,  _they must have known that most of the Alphas were gone. How long had they been scouting the house? Were they targeting a specific Omega? Suga and Keiji had left with the Alphas…_

He softly shook his head, the unanswered questions were just piling up and he did _not_ like it. Hopefully Yuji was strong enough to hold down the fort in the back because he wasn't going to get backup any time soon.

"Who the fuck are you," his teammate snapped at the invaders, his scent quickly devolving into a state of rage-- influenced by the overbearing smell of the Alphas before them. "And what are you doing here."

Tsukishima could feel his own instincts reacting to the intruders as well, pushing out his Alpha scent against his will. He needed to gain back the small measure of control. He was the brain of their defense, it would be unwise of him to lose himself to his feral nature.

"Hey! Shoyo!" Another man called out to the porch, vigorously waving across the yard. "Holy shit! Is that you, carrot top?!"

He was taller, and significantly larger, than the Alpha that had initially spoke, but he had a softer dominance. Regardless, Tsukishima didn't like that he had blatantly ignored Tobio's line of questioning... _or his domineering scent._ It was unusual. Lesser Alphas were rarely able to blatantly ignore the more dominant scents of their counterparts... _unless they were Yuji. That kid was scrappy to the core._

"I can smell Oikawa around here. Where is that beautiful  _slut_?" The tall man continued, spitting out the last word with a bitter contempt that made Tsukishima's skin crawl.

"F-fuck you, Morio," Shoyo stuttered to reply, rage wafting off of his quivering body in cool droves. "Oikawa would never want to see a _knothead_ like you."

 _So these fuckers did know the Omegas,_ Tsukishima thought to himself, adding another piece to his growing puzzle.  _Perhaps, this was the Alpha group that burned down their home?_ The speculation prompted a series of unwanted pangs to detonate within his chest. His instincts coiled inside of stomach and attempted to snake up their way up into his mind, but he quickly shoved them back down. He didn't care about the Omegas, well, he didn't care about  _most_ of the Omegas.

"I'm sure the  _whore_  would be down for a good time, Shoyo. There's no need to lie! We all know the truth. We're all friends here," the dominant Alpha chirped to the anxious ginger on the porch. "Oikawa has always been down for a fun time!"

"Shut up, Emon!" Shoyo yelled back, struggling to retain his composure. "Don't fucking call Oikawa a w-whore!"

 _Dominant Alpha...Emon. Tall Alpha...Morio. Two silent Alphas_. Tsukishima wasn't ordinarily violent, nor did he allow his instincts to guide his actions, but these men were backing him into a corner-- and Alpha instincts didn't like corners. Especially on their own territory.

"Don't you say another fucking word to him," Tobio snarled ferociously, baring a set of white teeth at Emon's casual form.

"That's pretty bold of you to say, man," Emon quipped back, flashing a ruthless smile. "I can smell that carrot top isn't your property. Or maybe, that's just the kind of Alpha you are. You know, the type that enjoys bossing around poor little Omegas?"

Tsukishima did not appreciate the disgusting words. They did well to twist the situation with a kind of pathological manipulation that had clearly been practiced. However, more than that, the words were  _challenging_. He suppressed a possessive growl, fighting to keep his head clear and level against his growing instincts. When he felt Tobio move forward, falling for the manipulative chirp, he quickly stopped him in place by the back of the shirt.

"Don't fall for their shit. He's obviously trying to bait you," he quietly disclosed to his black haired teammate in a quiet, throaty rumble. "Relax."

Tobio slightly nodded in understanding and loosened his posture. "Right."

"Hey! You're fucking gorgeous!" Emon shouted as he beelined across the lawn to the edge of the porch. "I don't remember you being around last year...are you new to the flock or something?" He continued, addressing Yamaguchi's shivering form. "You're adorable!"

When the freckled boy didn't answer, Emon waltzed up to the front porch and leaned his chin of the white railing. Tsukishima stiffened-- The man was much too close Yamaguchi for his comfort. He had no respect for  _property_.

Tsukishima's primal instincts renewed their swirl, this time higher up in his chest, and he shuffled closer to the foreboding Alpha-- growing sick to his stomach as Yamaguchi's fearful scent came into range. If Emon moved even an inch closer, he knew that he wouldn't be able to prevent himself from attacking. His feral nature was already eating away at his logical mind, howling away to its heart's content in a cacophony of commands that were hard to tune out.

"Man, you're almost as pretty as Oikawa!" Emon proclaimed with a throaty growl, leaking a disgusting scent of arousal that nearly drove Tsukishima mad. "I think you'll suit me fine!"

Yamaguchi backed himself against the yellow siding of the house and unleashed a full-bodied scent of anxiety into the night air. Only this time, it didn't make Tsukishima sick to his stomach and instead burst through his nausea, rooting inside his beating heart.  _Mine. Do not touch. MINE._

"Take another step-" He hotly began in challenge, only to be interrupted by a call from the taller Alpha _._

"If you're claiming that _one_ ," Morio barked to Emon, pointing an aggressive finger to Yamaguchi from across the yard. "Then the ginger kid is _mine_."

Tsukishima raked his gaze across the lawn and internally cursed himself for not noticing Morio's quick move to the right side of the porch. With Emon standing opposite on the left, he could no longer keep the two intruders in his line of sight at the same time. They had taken advantage of his calm upset and had wisely spaced themselves out.

"Over my dead body," Tobio snarled out in response, vibrating in place from his position in front of the porch stairs. "Try me."

For the first time in his life, Tsukishima felt inferior to the king. He had fallen prey to his instincts and had forgotten about his defensive position, guarding the porch by Tobio's side. All the while, his teammate had remained in place, steadfast and resolute. Tsukishima could tell by scent that Tobio's instincts were just as loud-- roaring at him to move to protect Shoyo. Morio was much too close, just as Emon was to Yamaguchi.

"That can be arranged," Morio spat back with great nerve as the two silent Alphas spread their ranks from a distance.

 _Things are getting bad,_  Tsukishima thought to himself, grinding his teeth in a frustrated panic. His teammate was now struggling just as much as he was-- trying to keep a watchful eye on the individual movements of the four men. Emon was ready to hop the porch railing to grab at Yamaguchi. Morio was closing in on the veranda, likely planning to bypass Tobio from the right to get to Shoyo. The two Alphas that has remained quiet were sluggishly penetrating into their territory from the front, ready to provide back up. He clenched his fists and quickly ran through series of scenarios in his head-- _there was not a single outcome that resulted in their victory._ The intruders had successfully backed them into a corner. _They had outsmarted him._

"What the fuck are you doing here!?" A familiar voice called from the edge of the lawn, tearing him away from his panicked, self-deprecating thoughts.  _Nishinoya._

He didn't even spare a glance in the Omega's direction, not wanting to take his eyes off of Emon-- the man was so close to Yamaguchi that it was making his skin crawl with revulsion. If the spitfire was here, then Asahi would be close behind-- _that would level the playing field and he could tear out the disrespectful Alpha's throat to his heart's content._

"Heeeey," one of the silent Alphas finally piped up. "Holy shit, is that you, Nishinoya?! Long time no see!"

"What are you doing here, _Jacky_ ," Nishinoya seethed back, holding up a silver bottle in front of his small form. "Did you want another spray in the face? I didn't know you liked it so much last time! You shoulda told me."

When Tsukishima heard the Alpha's response, a hostile guttural grow, he forced himself to split his attention between Yamaguchi and Nishinoya. He was never one for praying, but right now, he really needed a higher power to intervene. If the two Alphas decided to smartly attack at the same time, there was no way he could protect _both_ Omegas-- they were too far apart.  _Where the fuck was Asahi?_

"What a cute little growl that was. Don't worry, there is a whole lot of spray left in this bottle for ya," Nishinoya continued in provocation, much to Tsukishima's dismay.

"You little fuck," Jacki threatened, taking a large, imposing step forward. "I wasn't very pleased when you did that. I guess this our little run in here is giving me another chance. I never did get to have my retribution."

"Bring it on," Nishinoya hotly challenged and readied his stance for attack.

 _Where THE FUCK was Asahi?_  Neither Tsukishima nor his teammate were close enough to protect the mouthy Omega at the far edge of the yard, more than ten feet away. He willed his body to relax, but found himself unable to combat the creeping feeling that was snaking its way into his heart-- a foreign emotion he had never really felt before that moment.  _Fear._ Suddenly, the aggressive scents of the hostile intruders overloaded his brain and the world around him began to slow. He stopped fighting against his nature and opened the floodgate his logical mind had been rigorously keeping at bay. His instincts burst forth in a sudden flurry, rattling off a series of commands inside his skull.  _Protect Nishinoya. Protect Yamaguchi. Protect Shoyo. Protect Tobio. Pack. Pack. Pack._

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jacky's form make a subtle shift, rearing up to attack Nishinoya. He moved without thinking. In an instant, he was behind Omega's attacker, yanking the man by the shirt with as much force as he could muster. The Alpha flew back into the middle of the yard and landed on the hard earth with a audible _thud_.

"Stay on guard," he commanded to the shocked Omega in front of him. There were still too many threats. He needed the boy to to stand his own against the Alphas until Asahi, or  _someone_ , arrived.

After receiving a flabbergasted nod from the Nishinoya, he hastily turned on his heels to re-engage Jacky when a solid form smashed into his long legs. His glasses flew off, blurring his vision in the process, but he recognized his attacker by scent.  _The silent Alpha._

The man attempted to pin his body against the grass, but luckily, lacked the physical prowess to outmatch him. He abruptly shifted his weight and flipped the smaller man over his head, then pushed himself up from the solid earth. Scrambling to his feet before his small attacker could regain his vertigo, Tsukishima took a millisecond to steady himself, before kicking his grounded attacker in the ribs to incapacitate him.  _Even if it was only for a moment, it would be enough._  He needed to move on to another intruder before it was too late.

When the silent Alpha keeled over from the impact from his kick, Tsukidhima frantically jerked around to find a new opponent. Although his vision was cloudy, high levels of adrenaline heightened his sense of smell. Behind him, Jacky had recovered from his previous attack and was prowling in front of Nishinoya-- a predator locked on his prey. The spitfire Omega help up his spray and his body was stiff, ready for defense. Tobio had tackled Emon near the left side of the veranda and was wildly bashing into his opponents guarded arms. A few feet to the right of them, Morio was struggling to get up from the grass. Tsukishima felt an unusual swell of pride spread over his chest--  _Tobio incapacitated Morio before attacking Emon...impressive._

Suddenly reminded of the Omegas by the house, he raked his gaze over the porch, eyes landing on Yamaguchi-- still frozen in place by the front swing.  _Safe...good._ Shoyo stood protectively in front of him, eyes glued to Tobio's brawl. Before Tsukishima could make a move, Morio was on his feet, grabbing the king by the back of the neck. The tall Alpha yanked him off of Emon's defensive form and threw him back into the porch railing, breaking the wood upon impact. As Tsukishima closed the gap between them, Shoyo threw himself into the tall man to defend Tobio's winded form, but his weightless body had little impact. Morio grabbed the ginger by the hair with ease and threw him down, smoking his head white banister of the porch stairs.

When Tsukishima smelled Shoyo's blood, he was thrown into a fit of blinding rage. He increased the pace of his sprint and threw his body into an attack, slashing his elbow into the Morio's temple. As the tall Alpha stumbled over, clamoring at the railing to regain his balance, Tsukishima hurled himself into his torso and the pair tripped over Emon's dazed form, tumbling onto the grass beneath the oak tree.

As he rolled around on the hard earth with his opponent, throwing and receiving punches, he released his domineering scent in its entirety. For the first time in his entire life, he allowed his instincts to fully take over. He was no longer the calm, reserved, intellectual Tsukishima-- he was a feral, vicious animal. He didn't feel the bones of his fingers snap against his opponent's skull. He didn't feel the damaging blows against his own jaw, ringing through his ears. All he felt was an innate desire-- an intense need to slaughter every single one of the intruders using only his fists.

**Hajime~**

They were nearly halfway to the liquor store when Hajime felt Suga's scent sour the air with anxiety. He whipped around, eyes searching for unwelcome Alphas, only to find the silver haired boy stalled in place on the sidewalk, staring down at his phone.

"What?!" He growled and stepped towards the shaking boy, ignoring the sickening smell around him. "What is it..."

Suga looked up from the screen in his hands. "They...the house," he tried to whisper, but fell short as fearful tears pooled n his hazel eyes.

Hajime had never seen the motherly Omega so frightened before. Not even when the boy was sexually assaulted a few weeks earlier. His own panic set in--  _whatever it was, it was really bad._

"What is going on," Tanaka snarled out from beside him, his protective scent radiating into the air as a fail-safe for his confusion.

"There are intruders at the house. We need to go," Keiji stated in a hurry, shoving his phone in his pocket as he started into a fast sprint back the way they had come.

 _Intruders. House._ The two words were all Hajime had heard, and they were more than enough to darken his eyes with feral instinct. He burst into a fast sprint down the pavement with Tanaka following close behind.

 _Oikawa_.


	16. Reliving the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo yo, I’m tired from work so I’m uploading this, and I’ll come back and update the errors tomorrozzzzzzzz. 
> 
> (I always find myself beating on the poor Oikawa, I think it’s because out of all the Omega characters...he can take the crap I dish out to him).
> 
> Thanks for reaaaaaaaaaaaading <3
> 
> Also, I've been laxing off on the trigger warnings, my bad guys. 
> 
> **Trigger Warning**
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Sixteen: Reliving the Past**

**Bokuto~**

"So...I've been meaning to ask you guys…" Bokuto began as he handed off a series of half empty liquor bottles to Kuroo-- his own personal stash. "What...should I do about Keiji."

"What do you mean what should you do?" Daichi drawled out from his position, leaning against the open door frame.

"Well, I guess I mean-"

"You like him," Kuroo stated plainly as he adjusted several bottles in his arms.

Bokuto sighed,  _he did,_  and he had _no_ idea what to do. He was treading unfamiliar water and he was barely keep his head above the icy waves.

"Wooooooow," Daichi slurred as he jumped onto Bokuto's unsuspecting form, giving him a hard noogie that messed up his styled hair. "You LIKE an Omegaaaaaaaaa!"

"Shut up," Bokuto snapped back, shoving off the intoxicated caption from his slumped form. The entire point of talking with Daichi and Kuroo was so that he  _wouldn't_ be made fun of...

"Oh god," the rooster droned, rolling his eyes at Bokuto's pouting figure. "Don't be so _sensitive_. We're all friends here."

"Yeah," Daichi chimed in agreement, lightly brushing down the front of his rumpled shirt to straighten it. "But, let's get one thing straight first. Do you like him, or do you just want to fuck him?"

Bokuto paused for a moment to contemplate the heavy handed question. He knew that it was fair of his captain to ask, but he hadn't exactly had time to figure out the answer. He _did_ want to sleep with Keiji, but it was different than his instinctual feelings towards other Omegas-- that was what he wanted their advice on.

"Both," he replied after a few silent moments, his dark brows furrowed at his own response-- still unsure of his emotions. On a good day, they were confusing, but most of the time they were just infuriating. He had never experienced such intense feelings for someone, especially an Omega, and he had absolutely no references that could help him sort everything out.

"Mmm," Daichi nodded with a dark, frightening look and a throaty rumble of dominance that sent shivers down Bokuto's spine- once again reminding him that his captain was not someone that he _ever_ wanted to cross. "If you're only trying to use him, I'll never let you near our fucking house again. Ever."

Bokuto steadied his conviction,  _it wasn't like that._  If he knew anything at all, it was that he cared about Keiji's well-being, but it was something that he struggled to admit, even to himself. He shook his head in exasperation. If he wanted Daichi's blessing,  _no,_  it wasn't about _wanting_ the blessing, he  _needed_  it. Mingling with his yellow house teammates that evening had taught him one thing-- that they and their Omega counterparts were morphing into some odd, hybrid pack. If he wanted a place in it, he needed to swallow his pride and be honest with himself. He needed to be okay with asking for, and listening to, advice.

"I don't...want that...Daichi. Really. I mean, I don't really understand what I want, but I just...feel so empty when I'm not around him," he said quietly, sheepishly shifting his weight from foot to foot. "It's different...with Keiji. Different than with other Omegas. I don't really know why, but it is."

"Okay then," the captain affirmed, his scent relaxing back to contentment-- obviously pleased with his honest answer.

"Guess you're a part of the club now, eh?" Kuroo snorted to himself as he handed off a few half-full liquor bottles to Daichi.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do?" Bokuto cried out, dramatically throwing his hands into the air. "I need you guys' fucking advice, okay? His scent is driving me _insane_...it's _all_ I can think about. I'm losing sleep. I can barely eat. I don't know what to do."

"It's like a drug," Daichi stated plainly and shrugged his shoulders. "Even now, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about Suga...and believe me, it's incredibly frustrating. You're going to have to get used to it."

"Yeah…" Kuroo nodded in agreement, "but it pays off. Especially when you're around them. Like, when I'm around Kenna, I'm so fucking content. I just want to freeze time and live in that moment, forever."

"Mmm," Daichi pondered, taking a hearty swig of a bottle of liquor in his arms. "Poetic crap, but true."

"Fuck you, asshole. My words were beautiful," the rooster growled back, shoving the captain playfully to the side.

"Okay yeah, great. Like a drug. Noted," Bokuto growled, growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of usable advice from his teammates. "So, what the _fuck_ am I supposed to do?"

"Ask him out?" Kuroo said pointedly, leaning his back against open wall space. "Dude, you're over complicating things. It's like the exact same thing as an Alpha Alpha relationships…ask him out. See if you like each other, and go from there."

_Maybe he was over complicating things…_

"Oi, Daichi," the rooster continued, turning to face the captain, "I think your phone just buzzed, man."

Daichi shuffled the bottles to one arm and pulled out his device, glancing down at its lit up screen.

"So yeah…" Kuroo said again, addressing himself to Bokuto once more. "Spend time with him. Ask him out. It will all sort-"

"We. Have. To. Go. Now," Daichi snarled out in interruption, dropping the glass bottles from his arms. They shattered across the floor of Bokuto's room, creating a large mess of sticky liquid that seeped into the floorboards, but he didn't care one bit. His captain's scent had suddenly devolved into a state of extraordinary panic, whirling into the air around them with an intensity that riled up his Alpha emotions. When he rushed out of the room and clamored down the stairs, Bokuto instantly followed without question.

"What. Happened," Kuroo barked out from behind him, his throat rumbling out in quiet consistency.

"Intruders. House. Omegas."

If Daichi's unchecked emotions weren't enough to provoke Bokuto's instincts, his words certainly were. A primal feeling blasted through Bokuto's gut and up into his brain, slicing up against his retinas.  _Keiji. Was he in trouble? Had he made it back to the house already? Who was left behind that was able to protect the other Omegas? How many intruders? How long would it take for them to get there?_

He sprinted down the sidewalk, falling slightly behind the speed of his teammates, knowing that he wasn't the only one asking himself the horrible questions.

**Tobio~**

Tobio sluggishly opened his eyes, only to find his body sore and his mind dazed. Around him, the air housed an overwhelming amount of scents and their heaviness threatened to pull up the bile from his already upset stomach. He groaned, then awkwardly moved to stand, first grabbing a broken piece of wood that was digging into his back and tossing it into the dark yard in front of him. As his slowly clamored to his feet, his instincts sputtered out in a disoriented flurry. _Where was_... _who was he looking for?_   _Shoyo._

He sniffed the air, rolling his eyes around in their sockets in an attempt to settle his upset vertigo.  _Omega...hurt._ In an instant, his eyes snapped fully open and the world flooded back in technicolor as he frantically searched the area around him for the ginger boy. When Tobio at last located him, lying a few feet to the side in the grass with a nasty gash bleeding down his pale face, he was at the boy's side in an instant.

"Where are you hurt-" He started to ask, but Shoyo rolled onto his back and smacked away the his outreaching arms.

"I'm fine," the ginger boy hotly spat out, holding a pale hand to his forehead in pain. "Deal with the intruders. You're the only one who can do this right now."

Shoyo's demands rarely prompted action, Tobio knew that first hand, but the fragrant strength behind the unusual command forced him to comply, even if he wanted nothing more than to ignore it as he usually did. He sat back on his haunches, released a frustrated growl, and quickly analyzing his surroundings. Tsukishima was fully engaged in combat with Morio under the oak tree to his right-- their faces were bloody and neither seemed to have a clear upper hand. Further out in the yard near the road, Nishinoya was sputtering out insults as he struggled to escape the strong grasp of a black haired Alpha. A silver bottle was on the sidewalk beside them, wildly spraying around without a nozzle. Near it, a very dazed Alpha was shaking on his hands and knees, dry heaving into the grass beneath him- sick from the Alpha spray wafting about next to him.

 _Three accounted for,_ Tobio thought, shaking his head in an attempt to clear away his still-present nausea.  _Emon...where was Emon?_

Suddenly, a strong scent hit him like a truck, blanketing his form with its all-consuming nature. His body began to quiver and he leaned forward on his haunches, violently retching at the ground beneath him. It was not a normal Omega scent of fear... _it was much, much worse._ The world around him began to blur away once again as the sickening fragrance clouded his mind, leaving him unfocused and confused. He sluggishly shook his head and craned his neck towards the source, glassy eyes taking in two struggling figures off in the distance. Emon stood with confidence, a fist harshly balled in the struggling Yamaguchi's hair.

Tobio's instincts bashed against the grey mist in his mind, trying to break through. They wailed about from the banished recesses of his soul, commanding him to protect the Omega, but his body refused to comply. Yamaguchi's anxious scent had left him paralyzed, tired, and disoriented. He willed his heavy eyelids to stay open and watched on as the freckled Omega flailed against his attacker, clawing at the hands latched to the crown of his head.

"Stop struggling, you whore," Emon snarled down at the panicked boy. "I'm going to take you some place where I can make you feel good."

When Yamaguchi continued his frantic attempts, Emon paused to punch down into the his exposed face. Tobio's shoulders slightly winced, the first movement he had managed in what seemed like an eternity.  _MOVE_ , his instincts roared out, raking up and down against the foggy barrier in his mind,  _MOVE_.

Yamaguchi's struggles weakened, dazed by the violent force of the previous hit, and his loud whimpering snaked into Tobio's waiting ears. When Emon swiftly picked up the his light body and threw it over his broad shoulder, Tobio ground his teeth in frustration. 

 _He needed to do something. Why wouldn't his body move?! Nishinoya...Yamaguchi...Shoyo._   _He needed to defend them._  Every single fiber of his being was screaming at him to do so.

"TOBIO!" A savage roar erupted into the night air, crying out for his attention with its desperation.

 _Was it...Tsukishima?_  Tobio couldn't tell for certain. His senses were uselessly dulled-- his mind consumed by a misty, grey fog and his body heavy with a terrible fatigue that made him want to lie down on the grass and sleep.

"TOBIO. YAMAGUCHI!" Another loud snarl screeched out, shaking the heavily scented air around it with its loud vibrations. "GET. HIM. GO. GET."

Tobio sluggishly twisted his neck to find the source of the upset sound and his eyes landing on Tsukishima-- snarling at him between Morio's eager punches. His teammate's golden eyes were laced with a disturbed, frenzied panic that he had never seen from the blonde Alpha.

"TOBIO. TOBIO. PLEASE." Tsukishima howled out again as his face was blasted with another heavy punch. He snarled loudly and tried to force his way out of Morio's imposing grasp, but his attacks were too sloppy with emotion to succeed.

Tsukishima's dismayed scent slithered into Tobio's open nostrils, alerting him to his teammate's chaotic emotions. They were pleading for him to save Yamaguchi... _to save his Omega._

"TOBIO. STOP BEING A KING!" His teammate cried out once more in a guttural cry of anguish as he roughly clawed at Morio's snarling face.

_King…_

Tobio's conscious outrage for the word allied with his instincts against the grey shadows of him mind, ripping through the paralyzing effects of Yamaguchi's anxious scent. At once, he pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly from his crippled vertigo, then lunged forward into a full sprint. His now unhindered instincts tumbled into his mind all at once, egging him on.  _Protect Tsukishima's Omega. Protect Nishinoya. Protect the pack._ Unleashing a protective and territorial growl, he threw himself into Emon's exposed back, scattering three figures across the unforgiving pavement of the road.

Yamaguchi was the first to scramble to his feet and Tobio hurriedly barked, "go back to the house, now."

His desperate command left the freckled boy stalled in hesitation, cradling a damaged arm against his chest. When Tobio snarled again, angrily provoking the boy to move, Yamaguchi nodded and sprinted back towards the safe confines of the porch.

Tobio lethargically moved to stand and noticed that the pavement beneath him was slick with the deep color of blood.  _Was it...his?_  As he steadied himself on his quivering feet, a sharp pain radiated off of his arm, prompting an audible  _tsk_  to escape his mouth. He glanced down at his throbbing limb-- the skin had been scraped off nearly its entire length, leaving it a crimson mess of flesh. He shook his head, pulling out a few sharp pebbles embedded in the scrape, there was no time to deal with it.

He rolled his damaged shoulder to loosen its screaming muscles, then turned his attention back to Emon-- feeling a renewed burst of adrenaline kick through his tired body. The brunette Alpha was crouched down on the road a few feet in front of him, like a panther to ready to strike. For a brief moment, Tobio readied to engage in combat, but a high pitched shout from a few meters next to him called for his attention.  _Nishinoya_. He needed to prioritize the Omega's safety.  _Killing Emon could wait._

He let out a threatening growl, attempting to use his dominant fragrance to make his opponent back down... _if only for a moment_. When Emon hesitated at his vicious scent, he swiftly turned on his heels and sprinted towards Nishinoya-- struggling on the hard pavement of the road beneath Jacky's large form. He had nearly closed the gap between them when a figure pounced onto his unsuspecting form, stalling him a few feet away with stocky weight. His attacker growled into his exposed ear and wildly bashed into the side of his head with a large, closed fist.

"Nishi-" Tobio attempted to growl, clawing behind him at his opponents snarling face.

When he saw the Nishinoya's attacker begin to rear up for a strike, Tobio's mind snapped into a renewed fit of rage. _Shake off attacker. Help Nishinoya_. He savagely punched over his shoulder, landing several heavy blows as his opponent's legs squeezed tight against his torso-- holding onto him like a vice grip. Slowly, he dropped down to his knees, increasingly deprived of much needed air. He roared out and frantically clawed out behind him, unwilling to give up while there was still life in him.

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa was more furious than he had ever been in his life.  _How dare the Alpha scumbags show their faces here...intrude on the safety his nest had built in the yellow house. How dare Chaki use his mind games on Yachi as soon as she had started to heal. And Kabuto accuse Oikawa of missing his knot?_  He shuddered in disgust. _What filth. What could stop the monsters if a house full of Alphas wasn't enough?_

"Please forgive me,' he heard Yachi mechanically whisper from behind him. "I'm so sorry, Chaki."

She had lost herself in _the tunnel,_  but it was clear to Oikawa that she was fighting the dissociated state with everything she had. Although her responses indicated that she was going to, she hadn't _physically_ moved towards Chaki. Yet.  _Keep fighting my little angel,_ he thought, willing her to feel his supportive scent through her mental haze.

"It's okay baby," Chaki sang out in a manipulative tone that made his stomach curdle. "I will forgive you if you just come over here. We can leave and forget that any of this ever happened."

When Yachi sluggishly moved forward, Oikawa turned on his heels quickly grabbed her shoulders to stall her in place. He looked down at her cloudy eyes, upset to find that she was no longer present-- she had completely dissociated at the sickening remark. He ground his teeth in frustration and quickly went over his options. He and Yuji were no match for the three aggressive Alphas, especially if they had to care for Yachi. With Tobio and Tsukishima dealing with their own intruders on the porch, there was very little chance of backup any time soon. He knew that they needed to stall until their housemates returned, but Yachi wasn't going to last that long. All of the information left with two choices-- he could try to verbally break through Yachi's clouded mind with some brutally honest words, or remove her from the situation altogether.

He knelt down in front of the small girl, blatantly aware of the risk he was taking by exposing his back to the intruders. When he heard Yuji instinctively shift in front of his form and release a guttural growl of protection, he let out a small sigh of relief.

"Yachi, shut the fuck up!" He yelled at the small girl, slightly wincing at the vicious tone of his voice. "You're _not_ going with him. You got that?! Get a hold of yourself!" He hated the ferocious tone that he had to use against her, but she was too far gone to hear caring words. He had no choice.

"That's no way to treat your darling friend, Oikawa! You're being _abusive,"_ he heard Kabuto call over to him with drawled out sarcasm.

"Fuck off, Kabuto. You manipulative fuck!" He seethed back over his shoulder before rolling his head back to look at Yachi's blank face. 

_She hadn't heard a word he had said._

"You're holding her rather hard, Oikawa!" Kabuto chimed in again, his snarky remark prompting a nasty snarl from Yuji's rumbling throat. "Be gentle!"

Oikawa willed himself to ignore the tattooed Alpha's chirps, if only for a moment. It was now abundantly clear that he was not going to be able to verbally pull Yachi out of her own head. That left him with only one option-- he needed to remove her from the situation before her mind snapped. If her body remained exposed to the stressful situation, she might become trapped in the dissociative state forever... _or leave with Chaki._  He needed to follow his Professor's advice-- _Bring her to a location where she felt safe, wrap her in blankets that are coated with familiar scents, and rock her._

"Yuji," he barked and rose to stride over to the edge of the porch. "Take Yachi inside. Now. Go to the nest on the third floor. You'll be able to smell it." When the pierced Alpha remained silent, Oikawa placed a hand on his tense shoulder to ensure that he was listening. "Wrap her up in as many blankets as you can and rock her. Tell her that she's safe. Do not leave her side. Okay?"

Yuji slowly tore his gaze from the yard to look at him with worried, honey-coloured eyes. "What about you? I don't want to leave you out here with  _them._ "

"I'll be fine. I've handled these fuckers before," Oikawa asserted, giving the Alpha a small nod of reassurance.

It was a necessary lie. He knew that neither he nor Yuji could physically handle the intruders of their own, but  _he_ could verbally hold them off where his blonde ally couldn't.  _Please don't argue...just take her upstairs and keep her safe._

Yuji hesitated for a moment, his mouth set in a hard line of nervous anger, then he turned on his heels with a low growl. He scooped up the seemingly lifeless Yachi, unhappy yet compliant with the new plan. As he briskly walked towards the back door, he paused to let out a deep and throaty snarl which Oikawa easily translated as--  _I'll be back._

Oikawa felt his shoulders relax as their familiar scents dissipated into the confines of the yellow house, but Kabuto quickly snatched away his small victory.

"Aw, Oikawa. If you wanted to be _alone_ with me, you should've just said so! I didn't know you missed me so much."

He absolutely did not miss the disgusting tattooed man. Their past relationship had been nothing more than a twisted mess-- a twisted mess that was too confusing to understand. It was easier to banish it away than to face it. He hated that he had allowed the snake to touch him in exchange for drugs... _or for the money that could buy them_. A series of thoughts flickered across his waking mind, yanking forth memories he had long locked away in its deep recesses. He wished that he had the power to keep them at bay, but Kabuto wasn't going to let that happen.

*****

Normally, the signs of being an Alpha or Omega began to show around the age of thirteen, but Oikawa had been a late bloomer. He had attended an Omega school, as was customary for children who had yet to show signs-- the government's way of keeping them safe. If a minor's secondary sex presented while they were attending an Alpha academy, the results would be catastrophic. Especially if their first heat hit them during school hours.

Throughout his high school years, he had prayed every night for the universe to make him an Alpha. He had seen, first hand, the extent in which his Omega friends had been marginalized. Both their fertility cycles and Omega scents made all other outings too risky for them at such a young age. They remained secluded to school, their home, and the bus that transferred them in between. While the thought of being trapped in the confines of his own home until graduation frightened him, it was the brutal cases of Omega rapes and assaults that truly kept him up at night. He couldn't imagine being constantly on guard his entire life-- he didn't even want to imagine it.

One morning, during his ninth year of school, he overheard an Omega complain about their first heat and how fragile their body had become after the event. The idea of followed him around the entire day, prompting him to stay after class to ask his humanities teacher, an Omega herself, about the implications of it. At first, she had told him that his parents were the ones he should ask but, upon seeing his worried face, she explained it to him in earnest. Through her, he learned many terrible truths about puberty. She had relayed to him that heat supressor injections were never used during an Omega's initial heat, the hormones that erupted out of it were too powerful, and worse yet, that the event forcibly adjusted a person's chemical makeup to prepare their body for fertility-- both mentally and... _physically._

He was completely dejected leaving school that evening. When he arrived back at home, he went straight to him room to examine his naked body in front of his mirror-- looking for physical traits that might elude to the outcome of his puberty. He examined every inch of his body for hours, trying to convince himself that his taller statue, stronger jawline, and muscle tone were indicative of becoming an Alpha. However, when he began analyzing the size of his reproductive organs and slim waist, he found himself stumped. He wasn't sure what they suggested-- at the time, he had never seen the sexual organs of either secondary sex. He hopped on his computer to search for an answer, but the more research he did, the more a creeping feeling a dread worked its way into his soul. He ignored it, opting to focus on his other features instead. There were more things on his body that characterized an Alpha and he convinced himself that they definitely outweighed the sole component that argued for the opposite.

Oikawa's parents, lovely and sympathetic Alphas, had been better at dealing with his unknown status. They placed him in self defense classes from the age of ten-- a move that was done as a precaution against his potential for being an Omega. Every year, he complained to them without fail, explaining that his features all indicated that he would be an Alpha and, once he hit the change, he would have natural combat instincts that would make the classes obsolete. However, his mother always sweetly disregarded his objections saying,  _if you turn out to be an Alpha, sweetie, then you'll have the most polished fighting form!_

His first heat had hit him two weeks before his eighteenth birthday, officially declaring him an Omega. He suffered through four days of agonizing arousal in his dark room and, with each passing hour, his own self hatred increased until it consumed his very soul. When the change was at last complete, he examined his naked form in his mirror once more-- only to find that his most of his body hair had disappeared and, in the places in remained, it was light and wispy. His jawline was more gentle and, while his muscles were still toned, they had a softer look to them than before.

His world had fallen apart around him in a matter of days and his frustration with everything prompted him to bash a fist into his mirror, leaving a white scar across his knuckle that he still retained to present day.

He knew that his parents never cared that he had presented as an Omega. However, he fabricated their actions to suit a protective lie that fed into his own self-hatred. Upon graduating four months later, he packed up his things, ignoring the growls of his parents, and left. He changed his phone number and moved to the closest urban center he could find, effectively shutting everyone who cared for him out of his life. It wasn't long before he had his first sexual assault experience-- an event which only added to his low self worth. Soon after, he dove head first into the underground club scene of Omega prostitution, and the toxic lifestyle that came along with it.

He had loved the drugs-- they numbed his angry, vengeful feelings and fazed out the world around him. Nearly a year into his addiction, he had the terrible pleasure of meeting Kabuto, a prominent dealer in underground circle who quickly became his main source for money and pariphanilia.

*****

Oikawa shook his head, trying to banish the renewed feeling of self-hatred that had begun to creep into his heart upon reliving his past. He was sickened by his former self--  _the one who willingly sold his body for another hit._  It was a time when his self worth was exceedingly low. A time before Suga and the flock.  _His saviors. His salvation. He wasn't that person anymore._

"Well," Chaki began, hopping onto the porch in front of him with ease. He willed himself to stand his ground-- he had kicked the man's ass before, he could do it again. "Not that I don't liiiiike you, Oikawa, but I'd rather go check up on Yachi."

Oikawa snapped around as the domineering Alpha shoved passed him and confidently walked towards the open back door of the yellow house.

Oikawa's jaw tensed up. "What the fuck are you doing."

"Oh, Oikawa. You just aren't as good of a fuck as Yachi is. She's tighter."

Oikawa made a move towards the manipulative man, but stalled in place when he heard two deep growls erupt into the air from behind him. The scent of Alpha arousal and warning began to renew itself in the air around him, drawing his attention away, back into the yard.

"I can smell that your house is empty right now," Chaki remarked, leaning into the doorway of Oikawa's safe house to sniff. "And I'm pretty sure I can take that pierced fucker down."

"Don't take another fucking step," Oikawa seethed back, doing his best to keep his eyes on both the intruders in the yard and Chaki by the house.

"What are you going to do. Stop me? You've got _two_ other contenders right there," the black haired man challenged with a jerk of his thumb before waltzing into the house with an elitism that nearly made Oikawa snap.

He hated himself for not doing anything to stop the manipulative man. Hated himself for letting the pair of lapdogs stall him on the porch.  _Rely on Yuji...you're not alone...rely on Yuji,_  he repeated in mantra to himself, trying to ebb his own panic.  _He will protect Yachi. He will protect Yachi._ With that final thought wedged in his mind, Oikawa turned his slender form to face the two men in the yard-- both had wicked smiles plastered on their faces.


	17. Banishing the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd I've stayed up too late editing, I will fix some of the mistakes tomorrow!
> 
> By the way, this chapter revolves around mental health elements to it, so please read with caution.
> 
> **trigger warning***
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Seventeen: Banishing the Past**

**Yachi~**

Yachi knew that she had lost herself to what Professor Miyo termed as a  _dissociated mental state._  She could tell by the token dark tunnel her mind was held captive inside, replaying the past traumas of her life around her in a wicked flurry of images. The time that Chaki had tied her up, leaving her in his dark closet for hours as her stomach clawed at her insides in hunger-- only releasing her out once he had felt that she _deserved_ his forgiveness. The various physical discipline lessons he had done to her body. His belt, the back of his unclosed hand, his fist. No matter how many many times she had cried out her apologies, hoping that he would forgive her discretions without punishment, he always stood by his ideology-- that he wouldn't forgive her unless she  _showed_ him just how sorry she really was.

The worst of his deplorable actions were always accompanied by intoxication. She had a large scar to prove it-- a physical reminder of the time he had thrown her against the wall, accidentally breaking her slender forearm against the kitchen counter. He had been so drunk, and more than a little buzzed on cocaine, when he had done it. While she could find fault in his addictions, she struggled to do the same for his actions. It was her fault for making him so angry all the time. She always acted like a pathetic Omega-- it was only right that he treat her like one. She had deserved the punishments. She was better from them.  _He was had always been right. He was always right. He was right._

While stuck in her tunnel of spiraling memories, Yachi felt a large figure pick her up and cradle her with strong, lean arms. W _as it Chaki? Had he decided that he would take her back? Even though she had messed up so many things...was he forgiving her?_

"Hang on, okay?" Her carrier growled under his breath, squeezing her tiny body against his own. "I'm taking you somewhere safe. Just hang on. I've got you."

Her body told her that she had climbed up a set of stairs and entered an unknown room. The place seemed familiar, although, she couldn't quite put a finger on why. Then, something heavy and comforting was placed around her slumped shoulders and she was nestled into the lap of her unknown companion. When she felt her body begin to rock back and forth, she blinked slowly, trying to clear her tunnel vision. The gentle motion, bobbing her limp body from side to side, began to roll back the dark confines caging in her logical mind. It alone was not enough for her to break free, but when a low, throaty growl and its accompanying scent protection began to penetrate her senses, the flashing memories on her tunnel walls froze.

_What...was the smell? It was so familiar...strong and exhilarating. Calm yet antsy._  She was so close to placing its source. _So very close._

"He. Will. Never. Touch. You." A deep voice snarled out, a voice she knew she should recognize.

_It was not Chaki. Chaki would never rock her. Chaki could never make her feel this...safe._

"Those _motherfuckers_. I can't believe he did this to you. I can't believe. _He_. Did. This. To. You." The words poured out from somewhere close to her, growing choppy from primal instincts.

Yachi glanced up, staring down the dark tunnel towards the small circle of light at its end. Squinting her eyes, she noticed something coming through it- _\- something yellow._  Then, a sudden rush of a familiar fragrance blasted her, lightening her dark mind with its potent nature.  _Yuji_.

She reached up a weak hand to cling to the front of his orange shirt. "Where is...Oikawa?"

She couldn't recall much after smelling Chaki from the porch, but from what little she did remember, Oikawa had been there.

"He's...fine," Yuji replied softly as he gingerly flicked a stray hair from her pale hair. "He's handling things."

_He was a terrible liar_.

"Go…" She croaked out, increasing her grip on his shirt. "Go...help him..."

Oikawa was in the back yard, facing the Alphas in her place. Facing Chaki in her place. Doing what she couldn't. She hated herself. Chaki was right, she was nothing but a burden to those around her.

Yuji looked down at her, meeting her foggy gaze with sad, topaz eyes. 

_He seemed so very far away…_

"I can't," he whispered and continued to rock her against his lean body. "I promised him that I would protect you."

At his statement, Yachi reached forward in her mental tunnel, gripped onto the yellow light with all of her remaining strength, and yanked her conscious mind towards it. She was _not_ going to be a burden. Her friend needed her, needed Yuji, and if the only way the Alpha would help was if she was of a sound state of mind, then she was going to make that happen. The flashbacks flickering on the walls of her mind played out louder, taunting her to come back, but she ignored them.  _Follow the yellow light. Follow the invigorating smell. Follow Yuji._

"I'm not going to be a burden," she whispered as she clawed forward through the tunnel, pushing herself through its stifling confines. "Oikawa needs you. I'm not going to be a burden."

She felt Yuji tightened his steady grip on her hips, his touch reaching forward to help her troubling journey through the dark. His large hands felt pleasant on her body-- a warm touch, like an afternoon sun, that she could feel even through her clothes.

"I won't be the reason Oikawa gets hurt. I won't be the reason."

"You're not the reason, Yachi. He loves you, his actions are...unconditional."

_Unconditional?_   _The flock. The yellow house Alphas. Her parents, looking down on her from heaven. Yuji. Professor Miyo. Unconditional love._  Yachi increased her mental grip, throwing every ounce of energy she had left into one final effort. She pulled forward with all her might, internally shouting as she did so, and the world around her, the real world, seeped back into view.

"You have to go and help Oikawa," she said, her voice finally crisp and focused. "He needs your help. I'll be fine, I can hide out..." She paused, taking in her surroundings. Yuji had brought her to the nest. He had brought her to her  _home-_ \- the tea green room where she felt most safe.

"No," Yuji growled through clenched teeth before she had a chance to continue her brave declaration. "I trust him, so should you."

The words cut through her like a knife.

"I-"

"No. Listen. I don't know the full story of happened with those fuckers, but I'm not stupid. I know they hurt you. I know they hurt Oikawa. But that doesn't mean that you get to selfishly make decisions on your own," Yuji huffed out it in frustration, his embrace tightening around her with every word. "Can you not see that by thinking yourself a burden, you're actually _being_ a burden? I mean, for fucks sakes, Yachi. I know we barely know each other, but you're not a burden to me. And I'm pretty sure you never will be, no matter what happens."

They  _did_  barely know each other, and that was precisely why his words had such a great effect on her damaged soul. He was an outsider, inserting his way into her affairs because he  _wanted_  to, not because he  _had_  to. For Yachi, it was a grand realization that brought hot tears to her honey coloured eyes.

"I trust that Oikawa knows what he is doing. And, no offense, Yachi, but your body doesn't exactly respond well to Alpha scents. And believe me, the air outside is fucking stuffed with them. I can't protect you out there, I'm sorry, but I can't."

"You're...right," Yachi said through a few happy tears. "You're right. I trust that Oikawa knows what he's doing. I do."

"I'm alwaaaaays right," Yuji replied with a cheeky smirk, successfully lightening the drab mood. "Don't worry, you'll learn-" he continued before cutting his thought short, his lean body growing suddenly stiff against her own. In a mere instant, Yachi was ginergly pulled to her feet and shoved in behind his bristling back. "Stay behind he," he commanded with a snarl, clenching his fists at his side.

It was not long before Yachi found the source of his upset. A familiar scent slithered under the closed door and into her nostrils--  _Chaki._  He was coming up the stairs. Yuji's instincts had heightened his sense of smell while her previously dissociated state had dulled hers. She hated that her episodes always left her senses useless, her nose had always been one of the most important assets for her.

As Chaki's domineering fragrance intensified, Yachi moved closer to Yuji's protective form and inhaled his strong scent to steady her nerves. She consciously banished the tunnel to the deepest, darkest corner of her mind, and willed it to stay there. She was not going back to it. Not now. Not in front of Chaki. She was never going to give him the satisfaction again. She had Yuji, and they were going to face the monster head on, together.

"Knock knockkkkkkk," a sickening voice, one that was all too familiar to her, called from beyond the door.

As the black haired man entered the tea green room, at an agonizingly slow pace, Yachi felt the dark tunnel tug at her conscious mind. She balled a small fist at her side and inhaled Yuji's protective scent once more, using its sunshine energy to shove it back down with force.  _No._

"Yachi! I knew I smelled you in here!"

"Leave," Yuji snarled, grabbing out behind him to feel that she was still there. She was, and she wasn't going anywhere-- physically or mentally.

"No," Chaki quipped back, flashing her a manipulative smile. "You're in my way, mut. That girl is the love of my life."

_That's a lie. That's a lie._ Yachi repeated to herself, she wasn't going to allow her mind to retreat back to its complicit form. Perhaps, Chaki did love her in his own, twisted way. _But maybe...she deserved more than bad love. Maybe she deserved someone she could love as an equal--_ she clung on to the thought for dear life.

Yuji glanced over his shoulder, catching her gaze with a pained, questioning expression.

"I'm fine...I promise," she whispered, hesitantly gliding a small hand over his forearm. The contact sent warm waves of happiness through her aching chest, washing over her like rays of sunshine on a summer afternoon. She nodded her head, passing him the reigns-- trusting him with her protection.

Upon seeing her nod, Yuji gave her a sly smirk, one that she had seen quite frequently in the past few hours, and took a confident step forward. "I will give you one, _final_ warning," he barked in threat, cracking his neck while oozing an defensive scent.

"Awfully forward of you," Chaki hotly remarked, angry at Yachi's physical contact with her pierced ally. "Especially for an Alpha that barely knows her. I can hardly smell your scent on her."

"It doesn't matter. Any decent person would defend her against a sick monster like you," Yuji snarled back with an honest hostility that made Yachi's heart beat louder against her chest.

_Someone outside of her flock had said that Chaki was a monster. Someone outside of her flock had said that she deserved better. Maybe...she did?_

She heard Chaki snicker from beyond the Yuji's guard in front of her. "You want to fight then? I'm always down for a good brawl."

Yuji readied his stance, his lean muscles flexing through the back of his orange shirt.

"You know…" He started, rolling a shoulder to warm up the muscles. "Back in the yard, I thought you were the most dominant Alpha of your little pack, but now I'm pretty sure that Kabuto kid outranks you."

"Fuck you," Chaki seethed back, hunching forward, ready to pounce.

"Yachi. Move. Back." The pierced Alpha growled over his shoulder and she complied, stepping back to stand in front of the large windows behind her.

Less than a second later, he lept forward and bowled his full weight into Chaki's form, driving him into the door to the hallway. As the wooden frame splintered around them, Yachi yelped in fright and her heart grew cold with worry over Yuji's well-being. She watched on through wide, teary eyes as the pierced Alpha swiftly pinned Chaki under his weight, crushing his opponent into the splintered wood beneath them. After receiving a few hard strikes to the face, her ex-Alpha reached around Yuji's head and flipped their weight, throwing her blonde ally into the plaster behind them. Chaki then scrambled to his feet and threw his foot into the side of Yuji's head, sending him sprawling down the dark hallway.

Yachi swallowed the bile in her throat at the crunching sound of impact from the blow to her Alpha's exposed head. Her heart dropped down to her toes, not from her now vulnerable position to the hostile Alpha before her, but out of concern for Yuji.

Chaki turned on his heels and strode towards her, stepping over the broken door in his way.

"Now, where were we…" He snarled out as she moved to the furthest corner of the room to defend herself. In moments, his domineering figure stood in front of her and he reached out to grab her by the front of her shirt, slamming her against the green plaster. "You're going to get it for all this trouble you've put me through," he challenged through gnashed teeth, raising her higher against the hard wall.

"F-fuck you," she said quietly, cringing away from his face.

"What did you say?" The Alpha snarled in a dark tone, slapping her hard across the cheek.

_Fuck him_ , she thought to herself.  _Say it again. Say it again, Yachi._

"I said, _fuck you_ , Chaki," she spat again, this time looking into his dark, probing eyes.

"You little bitch," Chaki growled in near roar and threw her to the ground with great force. "Whoring yourself out to every Alpha in town now, are we? We'll have to _correct_ that."

Yachi coughed out at the impact, seeing stars. Chaki gave her recovering form a heavy kick to the ribs, prompting her to whimper loudly and roll over on her side. She didn't care about the domineering figure, standing ominously above her-- her thoughts were still fixed on Yuji.  _Was he okay? How hurt was he?_

_Was he_... _alive?_

She began to claw her way towards to broken door, straining her neck to find the blonde Alpha. Then, through her blurred vision she saw a sudden flash of orange movement and an energizing fragrance burst into the tea green room--  _unyielding_.

"You're one _cocky_ motherfucker, thinking this shit is over," she heard Yuji roar as he charged into the black haired Alpha once more, sprawling their figures to the ground a few feet to her left.

She groaned, pushing herself up onto her knees to move away from the violent brawl. Before she had the chance to recover, Yuji returned the previous blow with a little bit of his own added style-- roundhouse kicking Chaki in the side of the head. Her ex-Alpha flew across the room and into the far wall, knocking down Suga's hanging paintings in the process.

Yuji briskly closed the gap, pinning the dazed man underneath him. "Don't. Ever. Come. Near. Omega. Again," he snarled into Chaki's face, showing his teeth.

When he received a growl in response, the pierced boy bashed him hard across the jaw to silence him.

"She. Is. Not. Yours," he roared, punching Chaki in a series of raw and messy shots.

After a few moments of raw violence, Yachi realized that her blonde Ally wasn't going to stop. Even when the skin on his knuckles tore and the man beneath him lost his consciousness, he continued on, hitting and snarling-- fully feral.

"Yuji!" She cried out. She was starting to worry about the legal implications of the situation. While Chaki's death would make her feel safer, she didn't want Yuji to go to jail for it. They weren't... _mated_. It was too risky.

When the Yuji didn't halt at the sound of her voice, she summoned all of her remaining strength and courage and rose to her wobbling feet. As she stood, the room spun around her, and she nearly vomited from her uneven vertigo.

She pushed forward and sluggishly crawled over to the edge of the room. Then, she rose up once more, this time steadying herself against the solid wall. Using it to slowly guide her weak form over to the feral, blonde Alpha, she called out again.

"Yuji! Stop! You're going to kill him!"

When his instincts still failed to curb, she began to fear the worst. She needed to break him out of his primal instincts. _Fast_. She lined herself up with the Alpha's vicious form and jumped the last few feet between them, landing on his muscular back. The moment she made impact, Yuji reached behind him and flipped her over, pinning her beneath breath his chest. Adrenaline coursed through her as he snarled, baring his teeth in her face. She felt herself release a subtle scent of genuine fear-- his topaz eyes were darker than usual and they didn't seem to recognize her at all. She _was_ frightened, but it still didn't seem to matter. Other than a little blood on his forehead, and a few nasty bruises under his left eye, Yuji was okay. He was  _alive_ and Yachi was wholly relieved.

When Alpha pressed down into her delicate body, she realized just how large he was compared to her. She willed her scent to calm, needing him to recognize her-- the smell of fear would only agitate him further. Slowly but surely, her rosy fragrance seeped out, influencing him to relax. To let go of his instincts. His continuous snarls dissipated and his dark eyes cleared, lightening back to their usual colour.

"Oh my god," he cried out and rushed to pick himself up off of her tiny body. "Oh fuck. FUCK. Yachi, did I hurt you?" He asked in a desperate tone and reached out to touch her, but stalled a few inches away. "I'm so sorry. _Fuck_. I didn't even know it was you," he continued, backing away from her with frantic eyes.

"It's okay! I'm fine," Yachi replied with a weak smile, wincing at the pain in her ribs as she moved to sit on her knees. She glanced over at Chaki's unconscious and bloody form. He was still alive... _g_ _uess that was good a good thing._

"Are you sure?" Yuji asked his eyes darting over her body, searching for external injuries. His scent whisked into her nostrils and she suddenly realized what he wanted-- _to scent her._  The thought of the blonde Alpha touching her in such a personal manner warmed her entire body and muffled the pain in her ribs and head.

" _Please_ answer me. Are you sure you're okay?" Yuji questioned again, with more force than before. He had taken a hesitant step forward, but refused to allow himself anything less than a few feet of safe distance.

"Come here…" Yachi said quietly, looking up into his topaz eyes. They were laced with an immeasurable amount concern that gave her butterflies. "I can't get up, or I'll pass out. My vertigo...it's a mess."

Yuji took another step back at her words and she immediately understood his mindset--he thought that _he_ was the one who had hurt her.

"It wasn't you!" She exclaimed in a rushed tone, startling herself with the strong conviction behind the words. "You didn't hurt me okay? Just come over here...please?"

Yuji finally ceded and carefully knelt down before her. It was clear from the look in his eyes, and his dejected scent, that he was furiously chastising his own actions. His own self-hatred was rampant and dangerous.

"Your face…" She whispered, reaching out to his swollen cheek with her delicate fingers.

Yuji finched back at her touch and she softly tsked. She had an overwhelming desire to check over his wounds, _goddmit,_ she was going to do just that.

"I'm. Sorry." He instinctually growled, keeping his body just out of reach. Yachi inhaled his scent once more-- a flurious combination of protection and shame.

"Please don't apologize," she replied gently as she tried to shuffle closer on the padded floor.

"I-I don't want you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. You don't owe me anything."

Yachi stopped for a moment.  _Was he worried about her mentality?_  The fact that Yuji cared enough to even consider it filled her heart with joy, but it also slightly irritated her. She didn't want her actions to be judged by the frailty of her mental state.

"I'm not," she stated plainly. For the first time in years, she wanted to make her intentions clear by verbally expressing her own emotions. "I just want to make sure you're okay. I'm not doing it because I feel like I owe you a debt of gratitude. I just…" She paused, trying to gather her various thoughts. "I just...I like you. I feel safe when you're around. I don't know what the feeling is or if you feel it too. And if you don't that's fine. But...regardless...please allow to look over your wounds!" She finished in an explosive train of thought that ended in a squeaky tone of nervousness.

When Yuji didn't respond, she shuffled forward and unapologetically looked over his damaged face. She ignored his intense eyes and instead focussed on the new bruises. They were swelling very quickly, pushing his left eye closed with a purple mess of broken skin. Noticing a wooden splinter embedded in his forehead, Yachi reached out to examine how deep it had penetrated, all the while feeling like they were the only two people in the world.

"This might hurt, okay? Just relax for a moment…" She whispered, gripping the splinter between her long nails and pulling.

Yuji slightly winced, then quickly relaxed once she had successfully dislodged it.

"Thanks…"

Yachi met his concerned eyes, suddenly feeling an overwhelming desire to kiss him, but an audible groan pulled her back to reality. She glanced over at Chaki's damaged form. 

_Chaki_... _Oikawa_!

In an instant, she was on her feet and Yuji followed her movements, releasing fresh scent of protection in his confusion.  _Oikawa, they needed to find needed to help him!_ As she tried to step towards the door, another wave of fresh nausea washed over her. The room spun around as she toppled to the floor, feeling her ribs crunch as they made impact with the matted surface.

"Oikawa…" She tried to say as her mind began to fade.

"Yachi? Yachi!" She heard Yuji's panicked voice call from somewhere far off in the distance.

"Oik...a...wa..." She whispered once more, praying that Yuji understood her last request.


	18. Pressure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. I have worked on this chapter for far too long, and I am still soooooooo unhappy with it.
> 
> C'est la vie.
> 
> Fun fact #1: I had to physically draw a series of maps to keep track of all character positions during this arc.
> 
> ***Trigger Warning*** BE AWARE THAT THIS IS A GREY AREA OF CONSENT. 
> 
> (Fixed Kabuto continuity errors)  
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Eighteen: Limitations**

**Hajime~**

As Hajime neared the yellow house, he was nearly blown back by the heavy smell surrounding it. He frantically sifted through the various scents as he ran, searching for Oikawa's ocean fragrance, but the air was too concentrated-- he couldn't even manage to determine how many intruders were on the property let alone where his Omega was. When he neared the end of the block, quickly sprinting towards their private cul de sac, his eyes locked on two figures, rolling around on the tough pavement of the road.  _Nishinoya...Intruder._  To the left of them, Tobio was stiffly on his knees, a snarling Alpha strangling him from behind.

Before he had the chance to engage, a flash of movement burst past him, bowling into the stocky Alpha atop Nishinoya.  _Asahi_. The bunned giant seized the other man by the throat and threw a heavy knee into his stomach.

Hajime took a hesitant step back at the fresh, enraged scent that Asahi had skittered into the air around him-- it was fully feral. He shook his head to reassert himself, momentarily stalled in place by the furious fragrance, then moved forward to pull the overbearing Alpha from Tobio's back.

As he closed the gap, Tanaka whisked by him at high speed, unleashing a savage roar of fury. He threw his arm around the unknown Alpha's neck and yanked him from Tobio's coughing form.

"Who the FUCK ARE YOU?" He barked out, leaning down on his haunches to pull the dark Alpha up by the bloody collar of his shirt. When he received a challenging snarl in return, he pulled the man forward and smashed him back down on the pavement, winding him. "You want to answer, now?!"

Hajime let out a deep, threatening growl. His instincts were riling up of their own accord, drawing heavy influence from his enraged teammates.  _They have things under control. They have things under control. Move on. Find Oikawa._

As he quickly stepped past the battling figures on the road, his eyes zeroed in on Tsukishima, struggling against a large opponent beneath the oak tree. Without a second thought, he swiftly crossed the lawn and threw himself into his teammate's attacker, smashing the man's exposed back into the tough bark of the tree. Beside him, Tsukishima scrambled to his feet and unleashed a series of challenging snarls from his bloody lips. When Hajime swung his arm forward to land a heavy blow on his new opponent, Tsukishima frantically grabbed into the fabric of his shirt and yanked him back with such force that he was sent sprawling back into the grass.

Wincing at the impact his ribs received from the hard ground, Hajime sluggishly rose to his feet, swaying slightly as he did so. It was now abundantly clear that Tsukishima had devolved into an absolute state of feral frenzy-- something that his nose would have easily picked up on if he could use it, but the dense air had left him mostly scent-blind. He had never seen the blonde boy relinquish control to his instincts before that moment, in fact, he hadn't even thought it possible. He huffed out a small puff of air and brushed off his disheveled shirt, unsure of what to do-- Tsukishima was clearly unable to tell the difference between friend and foe.

"Hajime!" A familiar voice struck him from a few meters off.  _Shoyo. The Omegas...where were the Omegas. Were they safe?_

He snapped his head towards the source of the sound, eyes landing on the ginger boy, holding himself up on quivering legs near the partially destroyed porch railing. An angry looking gash sliced across his pale forehead, glistening with fresh blood. Hajime's instincts riled up at the crimson sight, coiling upwards from his chest and into his brain.  _Who. Did. That_.  _To. The. Omega._

"Oikawa! Hajime, he's with Yuji. Backyard. Yachi!" Shoyo cried out in an exasperated tone. "Go! You have to go!"

_Oikawa._

Hajime sprinted forward, suddenly unaware of the conflicts behind him on the front lawn.  _Was Oikawa safe? Was his Omega safe?_ The feral thoughts crashed into him, egging him forward in a frantic flurry of sharp movements. As he launched over the white banister to land on the wooden boards of the porch, a prominent scent stuck his nostrils, pulling back his attention. _Yamaguchi._ While his instincts were roaring inside his skull, commanding for him to find Oikawa, something deep inside his gut stalled his feet in place. The unusual feeling coasted forward, drowning out his natural instincts with its lumbering presence.  _Pack. Pack comes first._

"Are you both okay," he barked out at once, raking his dark eyes between the two damaged Omegas in the pink lighting.

"Fine," Shoyo asserted, his normally sharp eyes unfocused from pain.

"We're fine," Yamaguchi nodded slowly, cradling a damaged arm across his slender chest. "Go."

They didn't have to tell him twice.

**Daichi~**

When Daichi arrived at the yellow house, the natural adrenaline from his primal state shoved all traces of his inebriation to the background and he began a crisp, internal analysis of the environment. Tanaka and Asahi were engaged with two unknown Alphas on the edge of the lawn. A few feet next to them, Nishinoya was struggling to pull the very dazed looking Tobio to his wavering feet. Further back in the middle of the yard, another intruder was on his hands and knees, dry heaving into the grass and Tsukishima was wildly bashing bloody fists into a whimpering Alpha beneath the oak tree.

"We need to figure a game plan," Kuroo growled out from beside him, startling him with a domineering presence. "I don't want to jump into this situation without one. Our Alphas are already growing too feral for their own good. We can't let that happen to us."

Daichi glanced over to the rooster and slowly nodded.  _How long had he been there?_

"Use your eyes, not your nose, captain," Kuroo continued, his dark eyes flickering across the various figures before them. "The air's too concentrated to ascertain anything by smell."

The air  _was_  too concentrated. Daichi's ineffectual nose was severely handicapping his thoughts-- with each deep inhale, his understanding of the situation would shift. At first, he had been sure that there were four intruders, but the number had shot up to ten, then back down to three. He shifted his reliance to his eyesight, growling out in frustration at his inability to utilize the most reliable of his senses.

"Where are the Omegas," he barked, his eyes darting about to find them in the dim light.

"There. Two," Kuroo snarled back, jerking his head towards the pink lighting near the house.

Daichi snapped his eyes to the porch, landing on the cowering figures of Shoyo and Yamaguchi.  _Injured...and anxious. Who else had remained back?_ He quickly searched through his memories, finding them useless and hazy from his previously drunken state.

"Oikawa. Yachi. They're not out front," Kuroo barked at once, unwittingly answering the question. Then, his broad shoulders began to shake with unchecked panic. "Kenma. Is. Not. Out. Front."

Daichi's unleashed a throaty rumble at Kuroo's instinctual flare up and readied himself to intervene without the rooster's help. But, much to Daichi's surprise, he remained in place--albeir bristling with upset.

Daichi had expected him to beeline towards the house in search of his mate... _why wasn't he?_  He sniffed the air once more, doing his utmost to inhale Kuroo's nearby scent by itself.  _What was his motive? If not to secure his mate, then what?_ Slowly, the rooster's fragrance snaked its way into his nostrils, striking him with an instantaneous calm that sharpened his senses.  _Pack. Protect the pack._

_He was prioritizing the pack..._

A voice panted out from a few feet away, stalling his investigation with its familiar tone. "Daichi…" 

He glanced towards its owner, dark eyes taking in Suga's delicate built. The boy keeled over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Daichi instantly lunged towards him, leaving Kuroo's foreign, tranquil scent behind.

"Are you okay," he snarled, grabbing the boy in a protective embrace, visually checking for injuries.

"I'm fine," Suga huffed back, pushing out of his tough embrace. "We need-"

"Where is Keiji," Bokuto roared out in interruption, nearly bowling into Kuroo's tense form as he came to a stop next to them. "I can't smell him. Where is he."

"He ran into the house," Suga replied, still panting from his long run from the liquor store. "A few minutes ago. Hajime went too, I think..."

Daichi watched the owl lunge forward, busting into a quick sprint across the yard.  _Why was he prioritizing a specific Omega...one that wasn't even his mate...while he and Kuroo prioritized the pack?_  While he had been running towards the house, his thoughts had been solely fixed on finding Suga, but when he had finally arrived, he dropped the idea altogether. His thoughts had quickly shifted to a desire ensure that  _everyone_  was safe-- not just his Omega. He furrowed his brows, filing away the strange information. There were more pertinent issues, like his _Alpha_ pack. Although they clearly didn't need any assistance in defeating the intruders, they _definitely_ needed to be pulled from their opponents soon-- before someone was accidentally killed. He raked his eyes over the scene once more. Even without his nose, it was abundantly clear that Asahi and Tsukishima had gone completely feral.

"We need to pull our Alphas off," Kuroo reiterated, his shoulders bristling with anticipation. "They're fucking feral, Daichi. We need to get things under control before shit gets _really_ bad."

 _Was Kuroo in his goddamn head?_ They did belong together in an Alpha pack, and they had been friends for many years, but Daichi had never experienced such a clear _Alpha-to-Alpha_ connection with someone before. He couldn't deny that it was immensely helpful, especially in the chaotic situation they were faced with. 

"How many intruders are there," he barked, wanting to better understand the situation before he and Kuroo spread their already thin ranks.

_Four intruders. Two incapacitated. Two feral Alphas from their pack. What about the house? The backyard?_

"I don't know," the rooster replied, balling his hands into tight fists at his side-- thoughts of Kenma no doubt still lurking in the back of his mind. "But Hajime and Bokuto are in there...and Yuji too. Safe. Trust"

Daichi had no idea how Kuroo was holding himself together. If Suga had been inside the house, there was no way he would have had the self control to remain impartial. _No...to remain selfless._ When all of this was over, he was going to thank the rooster for the tough sacrifice-- and ask him how he managed it.

"Suga," Kuroo continued without breaking his intense gaze from the brawls in the yard. "Check over the Omegas on the porch. Get us information. Go in from the far left to steer clear of the Alphas."

When Daichi subconsciously unleashed a furious growl at the very prospect of his Omega in danger, Suga harshly slapped him across the bicep-- interrupting his sudden instinctual haze. "We are a team, Daichi. Trust in me," he said softly, squeezing Daichi's hand before jogging off into the yard.

Daichi had to bite down on his cheek to prevent himself from mechanically following.  _Kuroo definitely deserved praise...lots of it._

"Get Asahi," the rooster snarled to him, pushing up the sleeves of his long, red sweater. "Punch him to shit if you have to. Just get him the fuck off that Alpha. I'll get Tsukishima."

Dachi nodded slowly and rolled his neck on its axis to warm up the muscles. Asahi wasn't exactly an easy opponent. The Alpha was normally a over-sized teddy bear, but Daichi had recently come to realize that he was an absolute menace when he was feral.

Daichi steadied his growing instincts, inwardly commanding them to remain under his conscious control, and cracked his knuckles. Then, he unleashed his dominant scent in full and jogged towards his feral teammate-- eternally thankful to have the first strike.

**Oikawa~**

"Do your new Alpha masters know how much of a whore you are? Cause I can smell one on you," Kabuto chirped with a wicked smirk. When Oikawa remained silent, the dark man continued to his vicious coo. "Oh, poor Oikawaaa. Does he feed your addiction as well as I used to? Cause I was pretty good at it, don't you think?"

"Be quiet," Oikawa retorted, but all signs of his conviction were lost on his tone. His self esteem was sinking in on itself from each word out of Kabuto's honest mouth.

He hated the the tattooed Alpha knew all of his verbal pressure points.  _He wasn't that person anymore...not anymore._ He repeated the notion in mantra, doing his utmost to keep his past memories at bay.

"You used to crawl on the floor at my feet, begging for me to fuck you," Kabuto continued in monologue, flashing a cocky smirk as Oikawa slumped down at the crude remark.

"I said, shut up."

It was a half-hearted response. Everyone knew it-- even Oikawa. He prayed for every fiber of his being to stand strong against the tattooed man, but the years of drug abuse penetrated his unguarded mind and flooded him with memories he had worked so hard to banish.

"Remember that one time? Man, we stretched the fuck out of you! I thought that I had broke your slutty asshole.  We had such a laugh about it later, remember? About how it was impossible for such a well-used  _skank_ to break."

"Please be quiet."

It was all Oikawa could manage in response-- a pathetic whisper of retaliation. He glanced up, eyes raking over Kabuto's angular face and lean, muscular build. His sharp features were accompanied by a large, sickly smile. He was clearly aware that his manipulative words were finding their mark inside Oikawa's tortured mind.

"See," he continued his verbal assault, biceps rippling under his black shirt as he casually shrugged. "There's the complicit Oikawa I remember! Right, Jime?"

_Complicit_ _..._

"Oh I remember," the long, blonde haired Alpha chimed in response, accepting the verbal baton from Kabuto. "Remember how he used to beg us to tie him up and fuck him?"

Oikawa had never  _begged_ them, at least, not how they were implying. He had always been in it for the drugs. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. He always needed another score, just one more to get him through the day, and he never cared how he got it. He allowed the filthy Alphas to tie him up, spit on him, and demand his mouth because he knew that it would get him what he wanted. He never cared about being humiliated if he got the addictive powder he so desired. Whenever they fucked him, he had been high out of his mind, or going through terrible withdrawals. He couldn't call their relations consensual, but he couldn't bring himself to call them rape, either-- his mind was perpetually tortured by the twisted mess that was his past. 

He shook his head, willing his reminiscent thoughts to go back to the deepest, darkest corner of his waking mind.They represented the  _old him. The one that didn't understand the value of Omega friendship. The strung out boy that couldn't imagine genuine love between Alphas and Omegas...Hajime._ The flickering image of his Alpha suddenly lurched his stomach and he swallowed a lump of bile that wedged itself inside his throat. A small part of him wished that the Alpha would come and defend him against the three monsters, but another part, one much larger and stronger, was grateful for his absence. He didn't want his Alpha to find out about his past--  _not like this._

In perfect, terrible timing, a ferocious snarl erupted out into the cool night air from behind him. It startled away his self-deprecating thoughts and forced him into a nightmare reality. He knew the person behind the vicious growl.  _No. No. No._  Pang after pang of panic hit him like heavy bricks, forming a twisting lump of terror inside his gut. Dark thoughts skirted across his mind in a continuous loop, leaving him struggling to control his external dismay. 

_Hajime was here. He was going to hear what the other Alphas were saying about him...how used he was...damaged goods. Hajime was going to find him disgusting. He would never want him after hearing the things that Kabuto had to say._

"Hajime I-" He began. He was trying to tell the Alpha to leave-- trying to tell him that he was okay and that he could handle things on his own.

Hajime growled, cutting him short with an abrupt movement. The surly man lunged forward to half-shield him from the intruders in the dark yard, shoulders bristling with hot rage.

Kabuto smirked at the new developments and his bright eyes flashed Oikawa a knowing look that made him nauseous. "Oh, so this is your new dealer, eh?" He chirped with unrelenting hostility. "Not as good looking as me, but I'm sure he does the trick."

_Please stop. Please don't say anything else._

"Who are you," Hajime barked, taking a menacing step forward. "What the _fuck_ are you doing here."

"Oh just a former friend of Oikawa's," Kabuto replied and shook a hand in the night air to feign his disinterest. "Are you his new Alpha?"

"Hajime, he's-" Oikawa attempted, but his words were cut short by another heavy growl.

"Leave," Hajime commanded, throat rumbling in a deep and constant loop of agitation. "You are not welcome here."

"Does the little slut beg you for drugs, too?" Kabuto asked, his tone confrontational and challenging-- no doubt trying to provoke Hajime into an uneven fight. "He used to put his tiny ass up in the air and shake his slutty hole whenever I came home. I _loved_ it!"

"Last. Warning."

Oikawa already knew that Kabuto would never listen to verbal verbal threats. Chaki and his lapdogs had always been in it for the mind games--  _and they were working._  Oikawa was already completely dejected, he wasn't even sure that it was possible for him to sink any lower.

"Tell him," Kabuto chirped again, directing unwanted attention to him. "Tell him how you used to suck my cock like your life depended on it."

His heart pounded against his chest, flushing blood to his ears, and he swallowed another lump of nauseous bile. 

_It was the truth. He had begged for it. He was disgusting...worthless...used._

"This Omega of yours," the tattooed Alpha continued, pointing at his slumped figure on the porch. "Just thought you should know that he's been prettttty used. I mean, a lot. Even _I_ would've discarded him by now!"

 _Used._ Kabuto was right _._ Oikawa had no idea how many Alphas he had slept with during his rebellious years, let alone who they were. His time between high school and the flock were extremely hazy to recount. In fact, it was nothing short of sheer luck that he had managed to control his heat during the drug-fueled times-- lucky that he hadn't accidentally mated with a disgusting Alpha. Mated with someone like Kabuto. His heat cycles were the one thing he held as valuable. Alphas had offered him, time and time again, more drugs than he could ever imagine for the chance to sleep with him during his heat. But he had rejected every outlandish proposal and injected himself with his prevention medicine month after month, without fail.

"Oikawa," a lazy voice pushed into his spiraling thoughts, pulling him back to the present.  _Keiji._  "Don't listen to a fucking word out of Kabuto's scumbag mouth. He's just a monster who took advantage of a drug addict. Nothing more," his nestmate stated plainly with an intense conviction that he hadn't heard in years.

"Wow!" Jime exclaimed, loudly whistling into the night air. "What a throwback! Keiji, it's been a while, man."

Keiji ignored the remark and walked over to Oikawa, taking his delicate hand in his own. Oikawa was grateful for the physical contact, and for the subtle, calm scent that accompanied it. They did well to help him drown out the overbearing Alphas in the yard. They also lessened Hajime's protective scent-- the Alpha's presence was only causing him upset in his worried state.

"Still good at ignoring Alphas, hey?" Jime drawled out, fishing for a rise from the calm Omega at his side. "Just remember my advice, Keiji. That type of attitude makes you a shitty lay."

"I'm sorry," a familiar voice chimed in from the back entrance of the yellow house. "But, who _the fuck_ are you?"

Oikawa recognized the over-eager tone in a heartbeat. _The owl_. He glanced over his shoulder, eyes following as Bokuto's stalked forward to join Hajime's protective stance in front of them.

"They're the shitheads who burnt down our house," Keiji replied to the owl, icy eyes fixed on the intruders ahead of him.

Oikawa didn't like to admit it, self-reliance was his bread and butter, but he was glad for Keiji's physical and emotional support. Even now, with his Alpha friends at his side, he was still struggling to keep himself together. The drawn out confrontation with his uncomfortable past had left him feeling drained. It was nice to have someone at his side who understood just how much Kabuto had damaged him.

"What," Hajime snarled at once, bristling with renewed aggression as he moved a few menacing steps forward. Much to Oikawa's surprise, Bokuto followed suite, unleashing his own, territorial growl into the quiet night.

"Man, setting these Alphas on us…" Jime started, running a hand through his long, blonde hair. "I guess you're still mad about me fucking you. Eh, Keiji?"

Keiji's scent soured the air with a flurry of unchecked rage. He huffed out in frustration, then pushed his way in front of the yellow house Alphas, dragging Oikawa with him by the hand. "You didn't _fuck_ me, you disgusting piece of garbage," he spat forth in a savage tone that caught Oikawa off-guard. "You _raped_ me."

Oikawa had never seen the icy boy so  _angry_  before. His nestmate never allowed his emotions influence his actions.  _Ever._

Jime shrugged his broad shoulders in response. "You wanted it. That's all Omegas are good for. Everybody knows that."

The crude words were just enough to make Oikawa snap. He released Keiji's stiff hand and ground his teeth together, releasing waves of hot rage into the condensed air around him. "No. He didn't fucking _want_ it, you animal. He was barely conscious," he started, pointing an aggressive finger at Jime's astonished form. "Fucking me? Brutalizing me for over a year? Fine, it's fair. I was in it for the drugs. I was out of my  _fucking mind_  most of the time," he continued, throwing his hands over his head in exasperation. "But, Keiji? You had no right. No fucking RIGHT to touch him. And the fact that you think it was okay? That it's all we're good for? You should be put down. You're fucking animals. You have no fucking humanity left. Actually, I doubt you had any to begin with!" He finished, panting from the sudden rush of adrenaline his truthful words had invoked.

 _Yes,_ he wanted to bash Kabuto's skull into the ground for all the pain the Alpha had caused him, but his rage was tripled when it came to Jime. The man deserved worse than death for touching Keiji. _For harming his friend._ His eyes shot to Kabuto's all too familiar blue ones and, for a brief moment, he saw a strange emotion flicker in their navy depths... _surprise?_

He shook his head and dismissed it, darting his gaze back to Jime. Before his hostile mind had a chance to devolve any further, a large hand clasped into the back of his shirt, pulling him into the safety of the group behind him. He shook his head, suddenly aware that he had made his way to the edge of the porch during his vicious monologue. He glanced to his side, taking in the bristling figure of Hajime. The Alpha held one hand reassuringly on his back and his dark features were plastered with anguish, but both his body language and scent exuded nothing short of unrelenting fury.

"I want to kill them," he growled quietly, loud enough for the intruders to hear the ferocity behind his words.

Oikawa was nearly blown back by his Alpha's sudden, aggressive fragrance. It pooled around him, blanketing the concentrated air with its intense fervor.  _Kuroo was right. Hajime was...a very dominant Alpha_. After a few brief moments of silent exchange, he realized that his Alpha was waiting for permission.  _Permission to kill._  As much as he wanted to see Chaki and his lapdogs dead and in the ground, it wasn't worth the cost. He and Hajime weren't mated. The law wasn't on their side but, more than that, he knew that it wouldn't be right to stoop to their level.  _Keiji had been right. Suga had been right. Violence would only create more violence._ He needed to find a way to break free of the cycle, and not just him, either-- but his nestmates and the yellow house Alphas, too.

"No…no killing..." He said at last with a heavy sigh. "They're not worth your time. But I realize that we aren't getting out of this shit without a fight. So l would be glad for your help in beating the shit out them. That, they deserve more than anything else."

"By the look and smell of things," Keiji added in with a sly smirk, licking his lips. "These fuckers already know that they're no match for our two Alphas."

Oikawa tore his gaze from Hajime to look back at the Alphas in the yard. They were bristling in anger-- upset at Keiji's verbal stab. It there was one thing his nestmate was good at, it was insulting Alpha pride and this time, the boy's snarky words were absolutely correct. The intruders seemed wary of the dominant scents that Hajime and Bokuto were unleashing into the cool air, but they were doing their best to hide it.

"Gladly," Bokuto seethed out, slowly rolling up the blue sleeves of his shirt. "I'm always down for a good brawl."

Next to him, Hajime unleashed a throaty growl of agreement, cracking his neck from side to side in anticipation. Oikawa rolled a shoulder around and readied his own stance-- a fight was looming on the horizon.


	19. Limitations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will edit this shiiizzz better tomorrow, cause I’m v tired. 
> 
> Sorry about all the sad stuffffff, we’ll be getting into some more fluff and smut soon, I promise!
> 
> Fun fact #2: I made the cozy, yellow house on the Sims 4 (which I play way too much haha).
> 
> Thanx 4 reading
> 
> ***Trigger Warning***
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Nineteen: Limitations**

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto was seething. The blonde Alpha,  _Jime_ , had raped  _his_  Omega. It took every ounce of willpower he had to not jump the man and snap his neck in half. When the entire ordeal was over, he was going to sit down and have a chat with Keiji. He no longer cared about the irritating butterflies in his stomach, they were trumped by his innate desire to keep the icy boy  _safe_.  _Especially if situations like this kept happening. First, the encounter in the Humanities Building and now this? It was ridiculous._

"By the look and smell of things, these fuckers know that they're no match for our two Alphas," Keiji drawled out in verbal challenge from Bokuto's left.

The Omega's confidence in his fighting prowess fueled into his growing instincts. "Gladly, I'm always down for a good brawl," he snarled, slowly rolling up the sleeves of his blue shirt.

When Hajime added a growl of approval from the position on the his right, unleashing a overbearing scent of dominance, he challenged himself to match it. He wasn't going to allow either of the intruders to touch  _Keiji...or Oikawa_. As he exuded his own domineering fragrance, the air around him began to swirl about, mixing in Hajime's scent in with his own. It was not long before the two had coalesced into a unique fragrance that was foreign to him-- a powerful, domineering scent that commanded,  _protect the pack._

There were two things unique about it for Bokuto. First, as far as he knew, packs only ever consisted of Alphas. Yet he and Hajime's pack-like scent included Oikawa and Keiji into its considerations. Second, it was extremely rare for Alpha packs to feel a need to protect their members. The weak were tossed out while the strong led-- that was the animalistic truth of it. 

_Whatever the fuck this scent is,_ Bokuto mused as he sniffed the air, _it is completely and utterly unique._

"Hilarious. Are you insinuating that we're going to be a cake walk for you?" Kabuto snarled out from the grass, hunching forward in anticipation. "Because you're in for a rude awakening."

Bokuto narrowed his eyes and smirked when he noticed that the mouthy Alpha was forcing his dominant facade-- using it to hide his uncertainties of the prevalent pack-scent, looming in the air.

"Oh, Kabuto," Oikawa called out to the tattooed man in a dark, challenging tone. "Did you forget that I beat the shit out of your Alpha overlord, Chaki? You think  _you're_ a match?" 

Bokuto was glad to hear the Oikawa's sly chirp. When he had first stepped onto the back porch, the Omega was visibly slumped down in his own dejected scent. Bokuto could only imagine how terrible it must have been for slender boy to verbally hold out against such manipulative Alphas.

_Alphas who knew him personally._

It was fairly obvious to Bokuto that Oikawa had yet to discuss his past... _indiscretions..._ with Hajime. Dense air or not, Bokuto could smell the nervous fragrance radiating off of the Omega from a mile away. _Was he worried about what his Alpha would think after hearing what the crude remarks from the intruders?_ Bokuto wanted to tell the beautiful boy that Hajime wouldn't care about any of it. That was the absolute truth-- his teammate wouldn't even bat an eye at Oikawa's past...he wasn't exactly the cleanest Alpha himself. Plus, Bokuto, and indeed everyone in the yellow house, could tell that the pair were developing an intense bond that would never be broken so easily.

When the two intruders let out a series of irritated growls at Oikawa's insult, Bokuto snapped back to the present and snickered. Alphas hated when outsiders pointed out the hierarchies within their groups-- unless they were the top dog, of course. He sniffed the air again. He wasn't sure who this _Chaki_ was, but the tattooed man standing in front of him had a very potent scent. If there was another Alpha skulking around with a more dominant scent than his, he wouldn't be easy to take out.

"Oikawa…" Hajime directed with a throaty rumble. "Please. Leave them to me."

Bokuto might not have been able to smell it, but he could tell from the pleading tone that his teammate was incredibly concerned for _his_ Omega's safety. Indeed, if Keiji was and eager fighter like Oikawa, Bokuto would be extremely worried too.

The chestnut Omega let out a deep sigh, clearly unhappy with Hajime's request. "Fine," he conceded with a grumble, crossing his arms over his slender chest in resignation.

"Keiji. You too," Bokuto growled under his breath to the metal Omega beside him. He couldn't help himself from demanding it-- his instincts were internally screeching inside his brain. They didn't care that the icy Omega wasn't technically  _his._ They wanted the boy safe. 

"I guess," Keiji droned out in an irritated, yet accepting tone.  _Good._

Bokuto watched as the two Alphas in the yard shared a brief look, non-verbally planning their moves. The next instant, Kabuto side stepped to the right and made a beeline for the far side of the deck. As he moved to jump up onto the patio, Hajime tackled him back into the grass. Bokuto watched them out of the corner of his eye, doing well to keep most of his attention fixed on Jime-- pacing back and forth in front of him like a predator.

"Try. Me," he snarled out, holding his hands out to the side in challenge. "Come. At. Me."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Hajime had pinned Kabuto under his weight and was smashing into the tattooed man with closed fists. By the smell in the air, Bokuto was fairly certain that it was an even match-- a feat of its own _._ It was rare for an Alpha to match Hajime's raw, unchecked dominance. Only Kuroo came close.

Bokuto lurched his attention back to the man in front of him--  _Hajime could hold his own._ When Jime took a confident step towards the porch, he wasted no time and hurled his full weight into the blonde Alpha's torso. Then, he grabbed the man's long hair and pulled down with all his might, throwing him into the ground. Abruptly shifting his weight back to his core, Bokuto ripped a tiki torch from the dense earth and steadied himself, waiting for his opponent to climb back to his feet. As Jime clamored up, he swung his wooden weapon upwards, smoking his opponent across the head with an audible crunch. The instant Jime hit the grass, he lunged forward and heavily kicked the crawling man in the ribs, sending him flying back into the now broken fence. In another beat, he closed the gap and yanked the winded boy up by his hair, snarling out as he did so.

"Never. Come. Back," he roared, dragging the blonde Alpha across the uneven earth towards the back gate. "If you touch my Omega again. I. Will. Kill. You," he spat into the intruder's dazed face, throwing him into the alley. Sharp rocks scattered out in every direction, stirred up by the man's impact on the back road.

As he swivelled around, heading back into the dark backyard, furious snarls from Hajime's brawl reaching his waiting ears. He raked his eyes over the porch, landing on the two struggling figures near its right side. His teammate was pinned under Kabuto and was clawing at the large man's face with frenzied aggression. Before Bokuto could make a move to help, Oikawa threw himself from the veranda and landed on top of the tattooed attacker. As Kabuto rose up to his feet, the chestnut Omega wrapped his slender legs around his hips-- pulling him into a tough choke hold.

Hajime tried to push himself up from the grass, but Bokuto could see from his sluggish movements that he was disoriented-- likely the result of a fresh head wound pouring crimson blood down his snarling face. Bokuto wasted no time sprinting towards the scene as Kabuto backed himself against the yellow siding of the house, slamming Oikawa's slender figure back against its hard surface.

"Keiji, get Hajime-" He tried to snarl in command, but something tackled into his legs, bowling him to ground.

Jime clawed up his body and hit him in his exposed face with an unknown, dense object, drawing blood in the process. Bokuto roared out with vicious fury, trying to force off his attacker with pure strength. When he was unsuccessful, he threw his arms up to defend his face from another blow and rotated his hips, trying to flip his weight. After a few long moments of struggle, Keiji's dark figure flashed across his blurry vision and bowled into the large Alpha atop him. The pair rolled off of his stunned form, colliding into the dewy grass next to him in a flurry of snarls and groans. When Jime flipped the icy Omega onto his back and punched him hard in his open face, the world slowed around Bokuto. His vision turned crimson and he clamored forward, grabbing the blonde man by the back of his neck. With fresh adrenaline pumping through his veins, he picked the larger man up and threw him into the fence once more, breaking portions of constructed wood. The next instant, he was on top of the Alpha, smashing into his purple, swelling face, spraying flicks of blood across the white painted fence. 

_KILL HIM,_  his instincts roared out, tumbling around in his chest,  _he touched KEIJI. KILL HIM._ He unleashed a whirlwind of turbulent growls, losing himself to his feral nature.

_That was the plan._

**Hajime~**

Hajime was beyond dazed. As he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, blood poured down into the grass beneath him.  _Was it his?_  The world around him was a cloudy, spinning flurry of dark objects, but he willed himself to gather his bearings through his disoriented state.  _He needed to._

_There was no time. Where was his attacker?_

When he forced his head up, ignoring the screaming muscles in his neck, his dark eyes locked on Oikawa. His slender body was wrapped around Kabuto's larger figure, holding the Alpha around the neck with every ounce of his strength. The tattooed man unleashed a series of exhausted snarls as he backed up against the edge of the house-- face red from his constricted airway. Hajime's eyes widened with horror as Kabuto swiftly slammed Oikawa's body against the solid wall. Once, twice, then a third time until Hajime's crazed mind went mad. 

_IT IS MY FIGHT. THAT IS MY OMEGA. DO SOMETHING._

At that feral command, Hajime pushed up to his unsteady feet before stumbling into the porch with a frustrated growl. His vision was blurry and his ears rang out with a high pitched sting, but his senses were unusually honed in on Oikawa's painful grunts as he intensely struggled to hold against his tattooed opponent's back.

_GET UP. OMEGA IN TROUBLE._  

His instincts roared at him once more, bashing around inside his aching skull with a series of frantic commands. He sluggishly pushed to his feet once more, watching on with his useless body as Oikawa finally relinquished his grip on Kabuto's neck and crumbled onto the dewy grass against the house. Kabuto sputtered out, coughing to regain his breath, then reached for the smaller boy beneath him with raw anger. He grabbed Oikawa's hair and held up his limp form in percieved victory. Then, in one abrupt movement, he threw the chestnut Omega down, bashing his head against the metal valve of the yard hose that jutted out from the yellow siding.

_NO. NO. NO._

Hajime's instincts bellowed out, darkening his mind with an intense, unchecked fury that lit his body on fire. His last conscious image was that of _his_ Omega's lifeless form, limply splayed out in the grass beneath the foreboding Alpha above him. The next instant, Hajime's world went red in the purest form of rage. 

_Kill. Kill. Kill._

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto didn't know how long he had punched for, but he was more than happy to continue.

"Bokuto!"

_Who was that? Whoever it was...they were very far away..._

"Bokuto, _stop!"_

A small figure wrapped around his back, delicate arms slipping beneath his armpits from behind-- trying to pull him away. Suddenly, a familiar scent snaked into his nostrils. _Metal and ice._  He stopped swinging and blinked slowly to clear his dark vision. The Alpha beneath him was a bloody and unconscious mess and, much to his dismay, he was still _alive_.

While Bokuto wanted nothing more than to continue beating into the intruder, he took a moment to sniff the air to ascertain his surroundings. There were too many scents for him to filter out completely, but he was fairly certain that Hajime had defeated his attacker. Kabuto's intense, domineering fragrance was no longer permeating the air.

He sat back atop the bloody man for another moment and allowed himself to bask in Keiji's tranquil fragrance. The Omega's small body was cradling his back, melding into his own figure in a immensely satisfying way. As he zoned his senses in on their forms, feeling the boy's heavy breathing against his tense muscles in his shoulders, the world around him slowed-- the only thing he wanted to think about was Keiji.

"I'm. Sorry," he managed to growl through his overbearing instincts. 

_He was sorry for a lot of things. For nearly killing Jime. For not killing him. For allowing the Omega to get hurt..._

_Hurt._  

At the fleeting thought, Bokuto swiveled around and picked the small boy up in his bloodied arms. He glanced down at Keiji's face, unhappy to see crimson blood, pouring out of a fresh cut on his cheek. The skin around it was quickly deepening into a nasty purple bruise. The damage made Bokuto want to throttle someone... _particularly Jime._

"We need to stop the bleeding," he growled out in frustration, once again banishing his desire to kill the blonde Alpha.  _His Omega took priority...how could he have let this happen?!_

Keiji brushed off his large hands, sending icy sparks through his body at the willful touch. "Stop. I'm fine. You're the one who needs help," he whispered with intense concern as he shimmied out of Bokuto's grasp. "Let me look you over first, okay? Your nose is bleeding...I think it's broken."

Bokuto didn't feel any pain. Lingering spurts of adrenaline had left him numb and Keiji's calming scent had blurred out the rest. He glanced over the icy Omega's small body, then looked out into the large yard beyond. Squinting to search the dark area, his yellow eyes took in the figures of an unconscious body, splayed out in the grass. Shoving down a renewed instinct to kill Kabuto, he raked his eyes over to Hajime-- slumped down on the hard earth near the deck.

Suddenly, the detonating roars of his teammate hit his ears, flooding the world aback with intense focus. In front of him, Keiji flinched at the harrowing sound and clamored to his feet to sprint across the yard towards it. Bokuto snapped up to his feet a moment later, yellow eyes fixed on Hajime-- rocking Oikawa in his bloody arms...howling grievously into the night air.

As Bokuto rushed to close the gap between them, an intense instinct hit him like a truck. _Protect the pack._ He pushed forward with hastened speed, then came to a lurching halt in front of his upset friend. Hajime's dark, emotional energy shot at Bokuto's soul through their connected primal instincts. So much so that Bokuto nearly vomited feeling the Alpha's raw upset. 

Hajime was in a state of _absolute_ panic. His unfocused eyes were wet with tears and he released loud, guttural cries of anguish that sliced through Bokuto's heart. He embraced the limp figure of his Omega against his shaking body and a deep gash ran painfully down Oikawa's delicate face-- one that would leave an unpleasant scar. Bokuto did his best to combat the pack-like instincts creeping around his chest.

_How had he not smelled Hajime's panic? He should have been there to help. He should not have been so absorbed in his own anger. He should have been there. He should have been there._

"Hajime. Listen to me," Keiji asserted in a shaky voice, kneeling down in front of the devastated Alpha. "I _need_ to check him over. I need to see if we need to take him to the hospital."

Bokuto watched on from behind, ready to guard the icy Omega from his wild, unpredictable friend. He had never seen an Alpha in such a frenzied state before and there was no doubt in his mind that Hajime had lost all control over his primal instincts-- Bokuto never wanted to live to see the day. It was as if Hajime didn't even notice the presence of anyone aside from Oikawa.

Bokuto couldn't fault his teammate for his feral upset.  _If it had been Keiji..._ he internally chastised himself for not hearing Hajime's duress sooner. He _should_ have been there.

"He's alive, Hajime," he growled when his teammate increased his hearty grip on Oikawa's unconscious form. "You _need_ to get yourself under control. We need to get him to the hospital."

When Hajime remained distant, he moved forward to place a supportive had on his teammates rocking shoulder. At his touch, Hajime stalled his motions and glanced up. His strained face was a mess of blood and dirt, smeared into his tanned skin by tears. Bokuto felt pangs of anguish radiate out from deep within his chest, influenced by both the scene before him and the now unwanted Alpha connection with Hajime. 

_He hated seeing his friend upset. Hated seeing Oikawa injured. Wanted to see the unconscious monsters in the yard dead._

"Put him down on the deck," he continued, shoving down his creeping instincts once more. But this time, they were significantly harder to banish away. "In the light. So Keiji can check over him."

Hajime sluggishly rose to his feet and mechanically placed Oikawa's slender body on the wooden boards of the porch. He remained close by and watchful, releasing low, territorial growls from his throat as Keiji quickly jumped up beside his nestmate to check him over.

"Bokuto," the icy Omega called out quietly, glancing over his shoulder to catch his owl-like eyes with panicked ones. "Throw the fucking monsters into the alley and shut the fucking gate. Then you need to sit Hajime down...on...uh...the bench. The one across the yard. You _need_ to calm him down."

Hajime let out a low growl, not wanting to leave his Omega's side. Bokuto didn't want to either, but he knew that Keiji was correct. His teammate needed to be calmed--  _needed to be brought back to reality._ Judging by Keiji's frightened look, Oikawa was in rough shape and Hajime needed to relax or he was going to become an even bigger hindrance. 

He glanced over to his teammate, then pushed Hajime's unwilling body into the yard by the shoulders. Sitting him down on the bench by the broken back fence, Bokuto let out a loud, commanding growl--  _wait here...or else._ Satisfied that Hajime was going to stay put, he dragged the unconscious men, none too gently, into the alley and closed the gate behind him-- glad to be done with the monsters. As he strode back over to his tense teammate, he tried to form some sort of a plan... _something_ to get through to the miserable boy. However, he had a sinking feeling that Hajime's frenzied state was going to provoke his own feral instincts-- they were already teetering on the edge of his mind. 

**Keiji~**

Keiji quickly analyzed Oikawa's body. More than a few broken ribs, deep bruises on his arms, but the gash on his left cheek, and the very obvious head wound that accompanied it, grabbed his attention.

"What. Happened," a sudden growl erupted from the back door and he recognized the scent in an instant.  _Yuji_.

"What the fuck," Tanaka added with his own distinctive snarl as he pushed his way past the bristling blonde Alpha in front of him.

"It's fine, it's fine. Please calm down. You'll only make things worse," Keiji pleaded with the two Alphas. He could tell by their guarded scents that they had heard Hajime's howls and had come to his aid, but their intense fragrances were only going make the situation worse. Oikawa needed calm, tranquil scents, not domineering Alpha ones.

"Where are the attackers," Yuji asked through clench teeth, his eyes glossing over with primal instinct. "Where. Is. Hajime."

"Attackers are dealt with. Hajime is over there," Keiji barked back, growing irritated with the two men. 

_He didn't have time for this. He needed to find Suga._

"Yuji, move your ass. We need to help Bokuto calm Hajime down," Tanaka commanded and, much to Keiji's relief, seemed to crush down his own flickering instincts.

_Thank God. He knows that Hajime isn't the only Alpha that needs to relax...Yuji is devolving into a state of unrest too._

As Tanaka pushed the Yuji down into the yard, Keiji jumped up and ran into the house. Its inhabitants were spread out between the living room and front yard, each with their own injuries. Some worse than others. The air of the house was soured with a variety of upset scents.

_Terror...rage...dominance...protection--_ all equally potent _._

Tobio's bristling figure was pacing on the front lawn, yelling at an equally enraged Tsukishima-- stalled on the porch steps. Shoyo was seated outside on the front swing, holding a cloth to a head wound on a very upset Yamaguchi. Keiji wanted nothing more than to ensure that the small Omegas were okay, but he didn't have time. From what he could tell, Oikawa was the priority case. _By far._

As he scanned the inner confines of the house, he flinched when he saw Asahi punch a large fist into the far wall of the living room, near the couch. Daichi was on the bunned Alpha in seconds, releasing his dominance as he shoved the giant into a corner with a series of crippling snarls. Keiji shuddered at a sudden rush of their feral scents and tore his gaze away. He didn't want to be _anywhere_ near them.

When he at last saw Suga, bounding down the stairs with a maternal, panicked look, he let out a sigh of relief. The silver Omega stopped in the entryway and frantically sniffed the air-- likely trying to locate the members of his flock. When their eyes met, Suga's face soured with fear and he strode over, ignoring the brawling figures of Asahi and Daichi as he passed by.

"What happened," he asked at once as his worried fragrance laced into the air. "Where is Oikawa?"

"He's in the back. Get a cloth. I think we might need to take him to the hospital," Keiji quickly rattled off, trying to hide the perpetual shaking of his voice. He couldn't bear to see Oikawa injured-- his chestnut nestmate was very dear to him, even if he rarely showed it.

The two Omegas hurried to gather up medical supplies from the kitchen, ignoring the devolving states of the Alphas around them. Keiji pulled back his scent, unwilling to add to the already dense air around them. They all needed to calm down, but everyone was too riled up to use their brains. 

"Oh my god…" Suga whispered, placing a delicate hand over his mouth in dismay as they exited onto the back porch. He gingerly knelt down beside Oikawa's unconscious body and softly wiped the blood off his face to see the wound in its entirety. "Oh my god…"

Suga's overwhelmingly concerned scent made Keiji _very_ nervous. If the de facto mother of the flock thought it was bad, then it was probably far worse than anything he could ever imagine.

"Go get Daichi," Suga commanded, keeping his woeful gaze fixed on the chestnut Omega in front of him. "We need to take him to the hospital. As soon as possible."

Suga didn't have to tell Keiji twice. He rushed back into the house, careful to reign in his scent once more as he entered the back door-- not wanting to draw attention to the situation.  _Oikawa needed calm energy._

He raked his gaze over the house and landed on Daichi's bristling form, still holding Asahi against the damaged wall of the living room.

"What's wrong," a familiar voice asked from his left, dripping with concern.  _Kuroo._

"Can you help me?" Keiji snapped around to ramble out. It would be faster to ask the rooster for help-- Daichi was both half-feral, and occupied. "We need to take Oikawa to the hospital. As soon as we can."

"What. Happened." Kuroo barked in response, his dark eyes clouding with primal instinct.

_So...all of his Alpha housemates were losing control. They were overly sensitive to any shift in emotion. Fuck. They were worse than Omegas._ The thought frustrated Keiji to no end--  _Alphas were supposed to be the more composed of the two sexes. What the fuck was this shit, then?_

"Not enough time," he snapped back at once, pushing out a commanding scent to influence the rooster Alpha in his favor. "We need to call our house advisor. Is there a car?"

"I'll call Ukai," Kuroo growled back and abruptly pulled out a shattered cell phone from his back pocket.

"Tell him it's an emergency. A big emergency."

Kuroo nodded in understanding, holding the device to his ear.

"I'll be out on the porch. Keep this quiet. We don't want to cause any more panic. Tell me when he is here. Have him come around back," Keiji hastily added before walking out the back door, pushing back unwanted tears from his icy eyes.


	20. Limitless Omega

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part Three: Difficult Truths
> 
> Recovering from their injuries, the Alphas and Omegas open up about their pasts and begin to think about their future as a pack. With the help of their professors, the students are able to navigate their tumultuous emotions and the frustrating hospital system. Suga and Hajime develop an unsuspecting bond while Yuji struggles to deal with his new-found feelings. Meanwhile, Daichi ponders what he can do to help make changes that could empower Omegas in their unequal society. Finally, Ukai finds himself in a difficult position-- attracted to an Omega that is already mated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop whooooooop, post party arc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally. And holy, it’s twice as long as the party. 
> 
> (I have so much work to do)
> 
> Sorry this is so late. Work has been EXHAUSTING. And this chapter….has SUCKED TO EDIT. I'm at the point now where I'm just posting it out of frustration, so, sorry for the shit quality. 
> 
> Fun fact #3: After I started writing, I kindaaa started wishing that I wrote in Takeru instead of Yuji :3 but it was too late to turn back.

**Part Three: Difficult Truths**

**Chapter Nineteen: Limitless Omega**

**Ukai~**

Kuroo had startled Ukai from sleep the with a distressed phone call about an injured Omega, pleading for him to drive to the hospital. As soon as he heard the words _injured_  and  _Omega,_  he instantly called Miyo. He relayed the rooster's message on his way to the yellow house, telling her to pull around the back where he would meet her--  _after he figured out just what the fuck was going on._

When he at last arrived a few minutes later, a heavy, domineering smell permeated into the air conditioned confines of his car. He keeled forward towards his steering wheel, erupting into a fit of heavy coughs at its confusing intensity. He pulled up next to the curb and hesitantly ventured another sniff after he had composed himself-- there was an immense amount of fear, an even larger amount of rage, and a strange fragrance he couldn't quite place.  _Protect...something_.  _Pack?_ He shook his head, filing away the strange scent for later contemplation, and raked his gaze over the residence. Tsukishima and Tobio were aggressively arguing near the porch. Their spat was much too close to devolving into a physical altercation for his tastes.

"HEY!" He shouted, cranking down the manual window on his driver's side. "What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?!"

The two boys ignored his calls and continued their verbal spat with vigor. Ukai hurried out of his car and slammed the door behind him, not even bothering to roll up his open window.

"HEY. TSUKI LET GO OF TOBIO. NOW!" He yelled once more as he strode briskly towards them, his broad shoulders pulled back as a show of dominance.

Tsukishima grabbed the setter by the front of his white shirt and eyed him down with furious intensity, plainly unaware of their coach's presence.

Ukai's throat began to rumble in irritation, he had made it abundantly clear to his Alpha team that he did not condone physical violence-- something most coaches either ignored, or in some cases, pushed for.  _Alphas will be Alphas…what a ridiculous excuse._

As he neared the two bickering boys, a rusty smell coiled into his nostrils, alerting him to their fresh injuries. The right side of Tsukishima's face was badly swollen, most of the pale skin on his face was crusted blood, and his broken glasses were resting atop his unusually disheveled hair. Tobio fared no better, in fact, he seemed to be in _worse_ shape. The kid had a wicked gash that ran, from what Ukai could tell, down the entire length of his left arm, and his right eye was swollen shut-- its bruised crevices caked with dirt. If that wasn't enough, a deep laceration slithered across his forehead, still bleeding down his face onto his white shirt.

"I said," Ukai shouted again, yanking the arguing pair apart by the back of their shirts. "THAT'S ENOUGH! WHAT the FUCK is going on here?!"

"We were attacked," Tobio snarled back in response, shoving off his loose hold. "Alphas."

By his frenzied scent and dark, glassy eyes, Ukai could tell that his setter did not have a full control over his instincts. He sniffed the air, hurrying to sift through the various scents it held--  _none of his Alphas were. Great._

"By who?" He questioned, growing more confused with each passing second. "Students? Did you know them?"

_How had the air become so concentrated? In his younger days, his nose would have been all but useless from the stifling mess…_

"Fucking shithead Alphas," Tsukishima growled, methodically adjusting his dirty, black jacket against his bristling shoulders. "They knew the Omegas."

_If his emotionless middle blocker was upset, then the altercation must have been bad. Really bad._

"Where are they," he barked at once, wanting to ensure that the threats had been properly dealt with.

"Three ran off. We piled two over there," Tobio responded plainly, jerking his head off to the side in indication.

Ukai glanced to his left at two limp figures, splayed out on the grass under the oak tree. He did a brisk, mental count--  _he had smelled seven unfamiliar Alphas in total, not two._

"Where are the other ones," he snapped, snarling as a sudden bitter anger washed over him.

He couldn't snap off the instinctual sound before it escaped his throat. _Nobody messed with his Alphas. Nobody._

Tobio gave him a brief, perplexed look, then burst into a full sprint towards the yellow house, with Tsukishima following close behind. Ukai ground his teeth together and followed suit, but stalled on the broken front porch at the sight of two frightened Omegas. Upon noticing his Alpha scent, the ginger boy clamored to his feet, guarding the seated freckled boy behind him.

"Who are you?!" He shouted out, his small frame quivering in fright. "Don't you dare come one step closer!"

Ukai felt a pang of sympathy shoot through his chest when the Omega's anxious scent hit his awaiting nostrils. The kid sported a large, crimson bruise on the edge of his hairline that clearly needed stitches, but neither of them retained the injuries that Kuroo had described. He reigned in his scent and calmed what little remained-- he needed the upset Omegas to understand that he was friendly.

"I mean no harm," he replied with a smile, waving his hands out in front of him. "I'm the house advisor, well, the Alpha house advisor...and the volleyball coach."

He watched on with curiosity as the ginger Omega hesitantly sniffed the air, then visibly relaxed.

"What happened to your head?" He softly continued in question, taking a tentative step towards the boy.

"Stupid _Morio_ bashed it into the porch railing. See?" The ginger hotly remarked, pointing at a patch of dried blood on the white, wooden railing next to him.

Ukai clenched his fists, snapping off another instinctual flare up at the crimson sight.  _Who the fuck hurt this Omega? Who the fuck had the audacity to walk onto the team's property, and injure its inhabitants?_ He shook his head and stifled a deep, throaty growl-- the unanswered questions just kept piling up.

"The kid behind you…" He asked once more, furrowing his brows in sympathy. Most of the fear emanating out from the porch was rolling off of the seated Omega, not the ginger. "Is he okay?"

The orange Omega's sharp eyes softened at the concern in his words. He turned around, moved in close to the freckled boy behind him, and whispered something, then nodded his head in understanding. As Ukai watched the interaction, he was suddenly struck by a tranquil fragrance, much like a crisp, clean summer breeze.  _It was...the ginger kid's...using it to calm the seated Omega. Smart._

Although the pleasant scent beckoned him closer, masking the horrid, condensed scent around the yellow house, he didn't dare move from his position. Miyo had given him more than enough lessons on Omega behavior that he knew better. One of her most repeated lectures emphasized that unfamiliar Alphas,  _like him_ , should never approach upset Omegas. While their intentions may be good,  _which his were,_  their domineering scent would only further agitate the heightened emotions.

"He's...uh...he's fine," the ginger boy replied at last, turning to face the Ukai once more. "I'm pretty sure his arm is broken but...we'll talk to Suga and figure something out. Don't worry about it, please."

_Suga_...the silver haired boy that he had met a few weeks earlier. The anointed mother of the flock,  _where was he?_

"Okay..." Ukai replied, unconvinced that things were truly okay.

Both of the small boys clearly needed medical attention, however, he needed to evaluate the remaining house members first.  _Where was the injured Omega? The one that Kuroo had been so frantic about?_

"I think I'm not the only one who would prefer it if you two came into the house…" He gently pointed out, trying to coax that pair into a safer position.

His riled up instincts were rather unhappy at the prospect of leaving the two Omegas out in the open, especially without an Alpha to keep guard.

"No," the ginger boy retorted back with unchecked conviction. "The smell in there is too strong for Yamaguchi to handle right now. We'll be fine out here."

Ukai sighed in defeat, there were more pertinent issues and, while injured, the two boys were well enough to not prioritize. "Alright, but please don't leave the porch...okay?"

"Yup, no problem."

_The instant he tracked down Tobio or Tsukishima, he was going to send their shitty asses outside to defend the kids._  By scent alone, he could tell that his two most forlorn volleyball players had vested interests in the injured Omegas before him-- over the last few weeks, he had smelled their familiar scents all over the two teammates during practices. He sighed and ran a large hand through his blonde hair. _..they were idiots for leaving their Omegas exposed on the porch. Millennials._

He graced the pair with one last glance before turning to walk into the open door of the yellow house. Before he had a chance to even sniff the air, his eyes locked in on Daichi's tense form, pinning Asahi aggressively against the living room wall. In an instant, he yanked his captain back from the snarling giant and held the two apart with mature strength.

"What the fuck is going on," he snapped as Daichi roughly struggled out of his grasp.

"Asahi is fucking _freaking_ out. He punched a _fucking_ hole in the wall," the captain snarled in response, his unchecked scent alerting Ukai that he was in control of his primal instincts-- albeit barely clinging to sanity.

_Asahi was the problem here? Asahi? Gentle giant Asahi?_

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the bunned Alpha move to step forward in attack, but Daichi swiftly lunged forward, pinning his large form against the damaged plaster once more.

"CALM DOWN," the dark captain roared out, receiving a throaty growl of unrelenting hostility in return. "Nishinoya is _fine_. Your scent will only upset him right now. Fucking _relax_."

Ukai remained stalled in place, suddenly unsure of what to do. He had never seen the gentle giant aggravated. _Come to think of it, he had never seen Tsukishima or Tobio in such frenzied states of anger either...even at each other. He had definitely misjudged the situation, things weren't just bad, they were fucking terrible. His team was unwittingly at each other's throats._

"Coach," Daichi growled over his shoulder, pushing Asahi harder against the wall to stay him in place. "There are a bunch of people in the backyard that need you."

Ukai wasn't one to comply to the commands of younger Alphas, but he respected his team captain well enough to know that the boy meant no offense by the commanding remark. He nodded, trusting Daichi with the feral ace, and strode through the dining room to the open back door.

Upon entering the yard, his body was nearly blown back from sensory overload-- the smell itself was overwhelming, but visually, there were so many things that required his attention. On the porch to his left, Suga, and another Omega he didn't recognize, were crouched over a very injured, unconscious boy. He could smell their mixed scents, pooling around them in a worried tranquility, that they were panicked by the rough state of their friend. Across the yard, Bokuto was holding Hajime against the damaged back fence, snarling into his face, while Kuroo yelled out aggressively from behind. At the edge of the veranda, Yuji was hunched over in the grass, his bristling figure on the verge of attacking Tanaka-- placed firmly between him and the house. Finally, on his right, Tobio and Tsukishima had renewed their vicious argument-- their spat having something to do with the injured Omegas out front and their earlier altercation with the intruders.

Ukai decided he would start with the most apparent issue, the very injured Omega that he was certain Kuroo was referring to. He quickly strode towards the kneeling boys, calming his upset scent as he neared them. Upon smelling his approach, the short haired Omega jumped up on shaky legs, ready to attack. Ukai stopped, doing his best to put forth a friendly, non-evasive scent, but the aggressive fragrances pooling off the young members of his team made it difficult, even for him. Much to his relief, Suga rose to his feet and placed a knowing hand on the defending Omega's shoulder, nodding his silver head in affirmation.

"He's a friend."

Ukai smiled in response, then took a step forward, rattling off a jolty explanation.

"Miyo is coming. We're taking that Omega to the hospital the _moment_ she arrives. No. Fuck it, anyone who has a _scratch_ on them is coming to the hospital. Everyone."

Thank you..." The silver haired boy replied quietly to his explanation, unable to hide the quivering from his voice.

_There were so many injuries on both the Alphas and Omegas,_  Ukai's throat began to rumble out in frustration at the circumstances,  _he hated it_.  _Was this how things were going to be? Now that they had opened their doors to Omegas? Was this how the Alphas were raised to think? That they could take whatever they wanted, with no regard for their own humanity? For the humanity of Omegas? It was sickening._

Suddenly, Suga's tranquil scent wafted to him, washing over his growing anger with its sweet, chocolate fragrance. He allowed himself to momentarily bask in it, drowning out the upset of the yard and his unrelenting thoughts with its calm nature.

_Miyo will be here soon, just hold on, boys,_ he thought to himself as sharp pang of sympathy shot through his gut.  _The chestnut haired Omega was...very injured...and there was nothing he could do. He knew how to handle Alphas...Miyo knew Omegas._

"I'm going to sort out all the fuckheads in the yard," he asserted, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "I know that you guys have way more medical experience than I do. Keep the kid safe for a few minutes, okay? Miyo will be here soon."

_It was the truth,_  Omegas  _were_  much better at both identifying and tending to wounds-- something they had gained through personal experience. He had never given it much thought, until he had met Miyo and her makeshift nest. After that, his entire worldview had shifted. Suddenly, he was personally involved with Omegas and he could no longer remain blind to the unfair state of society.

"Of course. We'll handle things here, Professor," Suga responded with a brief nod, then shuffled back down on his haunches, wiping a cool cloth on the lifeless Omega before him.

Ukai was not a spiritual man, but in that moment, he prayed to whatever god would listen-- hoping that the damaged Omega would come out of the ordeal alive and well.

Turning on his heels, he moved to face his two arguing teammates on the other side of the porch. If Miyo was the expert on Omega affairs, he could, at the very least, use his expertise on Alphas to gain control over the his unruly team.

In a few long strides, he reached out with large hands and harshly grabbed both boys by the back of their shirts.

"Your _Omegas_ are _alone_ on the front porch. Alone. With _no_ fucking backup!" He barked, shoving the pair towards the house as he did so. "Use your fucking brains!"

At his harsh words, Tobio and Tsukishima dropped their heated argument and pushed through the back door in a flurry of stressed growls.  _Good, now he didn't have to worry about the Omegas out front...so long as the knuckle heads could bury the hatchet for a while._

Satisfied that the two boys were not coming back, he quickly sniffed the air, reassessing the remaining Alphas in the backyard.  _Two down, four to go._  He was already growing exhausted from the internal squabbles between the members of his team-- they should have been united after the attack, not in disarray.  _Young Alphas_ , he thought to himself with indignation,  _too bent out of shape by their emotions to handle themselves like responsible adults._

Glancing out into the yard, he visually confirmed what his nose had hypothesized. It was something he had initially disregarded in disbelief-- Tanaka was the only Alpha fully in control of his instincts.  _Tanaka. The mouthy spiker that was always quick to anger._

"Oi!" He shouted out as he jogged towards to the bald Alpha ahead of him. "What the _fuck_ is going-"

Before he could spit out the question, an intensely hostile snarl snapped into the air, cutting his words short. He raked his gaze over to its source, eyes taking in the hunched figure of Yuji, baring white teeth in his direction. 

_Oh HELL no. The kid had balls, challenging a more experienced Alpha...no wonder his teammates called him scrappy._

When the blonde Alpha made a subtle movement, aiming to lunge forward, Ukai beat him to the punch. He leapt at the pierced boy and rolled him down into the dewy grass with experienced agility.

"Calm. Down," he growled into Yuji's snarling face beneath him, unleashing his domineering scent in its entirety. "Calm. The. Fuck. Down."

"Let. Me. Into. The. House!" The blonde roared back, pushing out an intense dominance that nearly made him keel over in concession.

"He wants to get into the _fucking_ house to see Yachi," Tanaka barked out in explanation from his guarded position behind Ukai. "But, he's too fucked right now. He's being a feral asshole because of the shitty air out here."

Tanaka was absolutely correct,  _Yuji was too fucked_ \-- he would only upset the Omegas with his putrid, feral scent. He needed to stay far away from them.

"What's wrong with Yachi?" Ukai growled over his broad shoulder, shifting his weight to better pin the struggling boy beneath him.

The scrappy Alpha may overtake his dominance in the future, but he still had the upper hand. _..for now_.

"Broken ribs. Head trauma. The FUCKING usual," Tanaka snarled in response, bristling with renewed anger.

Ukai sighed, adjusting his legs to prevent Yuji from kicking him in the balls.  _Just how common were injuries in this house? Obviously, his boys were not reporting everything to him. He was going to have a little chat with them about it...after he managed to control the spiraling situation around him._

Suddenly, a series of hostile roars erupted out from his left, pulling his attention from the pinned boy beneath him. He snapped his neck towards the source-- Hajime had tackled Bokuto into the damaged back fence and Kuroo swiftly moved forward to intervene, physically trying to pull his feral teammates apart.

In an instant, a hard elbow made contact with his cheek, blowing him back with intense force. In the brief moment it had taken him to compose himself from the attack, Tanaka had lunged forward and tackled Yuji's upset form back into the grass. The pair scuffled about, wrestling for control, until the bald Alpha persevered, sitting his full weight on his teammate's lean chest to hold him in place.

Ukai rose to his feet and rolled his jaw--  _the little fucker had sucker punched him. Hajime...Bokuto...Yuji...Asahi and Daichi in the house...how was he supposed to calm down so many feral Alphas?_  He had expected a few bumps and bruises, not the bloodbath he walked into.

"ENOUGH!" A vicious, all too human, shout penetrated the night air, blowing Ukai back a few steps with its accompanying scent of rage.

He glanced towards its source, stalling his gaze on Miyo's figure near the back gate-- her seething form illuminated by the headlights of her car.

"THAT IS ENOUGH," she commanded with a shrill scream and, much to his surprise, every single figure in the yard abruptly stayed their movements.

"WHERE IS OIKAWA," she called out, striding through the open gate with a furious confidence that made Ukai shiver down to his bones.

Her scent was  _overbearing...angry...demanding_ , it blanketed the concentrated air around him, stunning him in place. With great effort, he raked his gaze over the other Alphas in the yard. They too were frozen, their silent faces plastered with confusion.

"Over here!" He heard Suga call out from the back porch. "He needs help. We need to go to the hospital."

Miyo nodded her head in understanding, then snapped her intense gaze to Tanaka.

"YOU!" She loudly commanded, pointing a delicate finger at the frozen boy seated atop the very still Yuji. "Go and get Oikawa. Bring him to my car. _Now!"_

The bald Alpha frantically scrambled up to comply, his previously dominant scent dissipating into complicity.

"AND YOU!" The aggressive Omega continued, directing herself to Yuji's astonished form, partially laying in the grass. "Take a walk. And don't you _dare_ come back until you have regained _control_ , or I swear to god, I will _personally_ make your life a living hell."

Ukai watched as the blonde Alpha clamored to his feet and bolting towards the back gate with an eagerness that he himself was beginning to feel--  _he wanted to get the fuck out of there, too._  Miyo's scent was stifling, cloaking the air around him to a paralyzing degree. He had never experienced anything like it before in his entire life.

Miyo strode towards the brawling Alphas near the back fence, each step taken with unbent confidence. As she neared them, he small shoulders rose up as she inhaled their scents-- ascertaining their various levels of feral instinct.

"You," she stated after a few moments of eerie silence, pointing towards Kuroo's stunned form, his hands still latched in the shirts of the other two boys between him. "You're coming to the hospital with us. Get in the car."

The rooster nodded with wide eyes and promptly released his teammates. As he hurried towards the back gate, Ukai swore he heard a dejected whimper escape the rooster's lips.

"Owl boy. Get in the house. Sort yourself out before you become even more feral than you already are," Miyo continued in assault and Bokuto frantically nodded in response, before scrambling towards the back porch with vigor.

Finally, the beautiful woman stepped forward, stalling in place less than a foot away from Hajime's bristling figure. Much to Ukai's surprise, the Alpha boy straightened his shoulders with ease-- as if he wasn't feeling the paralyzing effects of her fragrance at all.

The unspoken intensity between them had Ukai in a state of instinctual panic. He wanted to rush over to the Omega's side and protect her from the darkly vicious Alpha before her... _he needed to._  He was keenly aware that Hajime retained a high amount of dominance-- something that made him extremely dangerous in his current state of upset.

"You're the one who protected him," Miko affirmed, in a softer tone than she had used with the other Alphas before him.

Ukai internally melted into her gentle words, and the natural fragrance that accompanied them. He much preferred it to the overbearing scent she was holding him hostage with.

Hajime slowly nodded, maintaining his intense icy gaze, but said nothing.

"Thank you. I am truly grateful, but you won't be coming with us until you've gotten yourself under control," Miyo continued, her words said in half command. "Do you understand?"

Hajime hesitated, still bristling with hostility, then nodded again.  _Well_ , Ukai thought to himself with an admiring smirk,  _the kid definitely had self control. There was no denying that._

"Go for a walk. By yourself. Steer clear of that blonde Alpha that I sent out. Is that clear?"

Hajime released a deep, throaty rumble in response-- unhappy that he was disallowed from accompanying his Omega any further. However, he was nonetheless compliant. A mentality that, once again, flooded Ukai with warm admiration for the boy.  _Even he couldn't boast of having such meticulous control over himself...and Hajime was still young and inexperienced._

"Good," Miyo said with a hard nod, before shuffling the boy off of the property. "Ukai?"

"Over...over here," he responded with great effort, suddenly feeling very exhausted.

"Can you stay here? I'll take this bunch to the hospital and come back to grab another load. Figure out who needs to come next. I'll leave it to your discretion," she rattled off in a rush, eager to leave to take Oikawa to the hospital.

All Ukai could manage was a nod. He had no idea what had just happened, or why he had been paralyzed, but he was thankful that he could at long last move again.

"Suga, Keiji, get in the car, my babies. We need to get going," Miyo called sweetly past him towards the porch.

It was her usual tone that he had grown accustomed to the last few weeks, and he was happy that she had reverted back to it.  _She was frightening was she was mad...he never wanted to experience it again._

As he watched Miyo and the younger Omegas pile into the small car, the overbearing smell she had released into the air began to dissipate. He shook his head, trying to snap himself out of the fog it had caused--  _he had work to do._

He glanced over the yard, more than one portion of the fence had been smashed in, there was glass all over the porch, and sections of splattered blood were on both the house and along the white fence surrounding the lot. He sighed, from what he recalled, the front yard hadn't fared much better. However, he needed to deal with Asahi, the passed out bodies of the intruders, and ascertain who needed medical treatment the most.

_He was in for a long night._


	21. Pack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings! I know we've had a lot of exposition the last few chapters, so after this one, we can get back into the meat of the story...ie, romance and friendshipppp.
> 
> Xoxoxoo
> 
> (As always, warning for grammatical errors).

**Chapter Twenty One: Pack**

**Ukai~**

When Ukai entered the yellow house from the now quiet back yard, he was irritated, yet unsurprised, to find Daichi and Asahi still engaged in their hearty brawl. He momentarily tuned out their animal-like grumbling and raked his gaze to the front windows. Outside, Tobio and Tsukishima had resumed their argument once more, and from their animated bodies, Ukai could tell that the spat had not lost its intensity. His eyes lingered on the two boys for a moment, suddenly realizing that there was not a single Omega in sight. A fleeting feeling of panic set in until their anxious fragrances swirled down from the staircase and into his searching nostrils. _Good_ , he thought to himself, releasing a subtle sigh of relief, _at least they were congregated in a single location- that would make it easy for him to assess the damage._

For a moment, he contemplated checking on the Omegas first, he _had_ promised Miyo that he would do so, after all. However, his motivations quickly shifted when Asahi struggled out of Daichi's stiff grasp and reared himself back for a renewed attack. Before Ukai had the chance to even think about stepping in, the bunned giant bowled into his captain's torso, sending them sprawling into the glass coffee table- their heavy impact shattering it across the hardwood of the living room. The pair made no notice of the sharp edges beneath them, continuing to roll on the floor in a flurry of hostile snarls, fighting for the upper hand.

Ukai hotly growled under his breath and shook his head in exasperation. _He was done with the out of control Alphas. Done with it_. Unleashing his dominant scent at full force, he hoisted Daichi to his feet, then pulled Asahi forward by the front of his bloody shirt. As the bunned Alpha snarled out in displeasure, he used his mature strength against the giant boy, yanking him upwards to slam him into the wall near the front door.

"SIT DOWN AT THE TABLE. NOW!" He roared into Asahi's contorted face, receiving a small whimper in response. Happy with the verbal relinquishment of power, he dropped the boy to his feet and jerked his head towards the dining room table. "Sit. There," he barked out in command, his yellow eyes beginning to darken as he used his instincts to curb Asahi's feral nature.

The bunned giant hesitated, deciding whether or not to continue his physical engagement with a stronger, more mature Alpha. Then, he sluggishly moved towards the table, his shoulders bristling with unrelenting hostility. Satisfied with the ace's compliance, Ukai pushed through the front door, eager to put Tobio and Tsukishima's unceasing bickering to an end.

"GET INSIDE. NOW!" He abruptly howled into the front yard, his demanding words laced with deafening fury.

When the two Alphas paused their altercation, but remained in place, he emphatically snarled out, altering them that he meant business. Tobio visibly shivered at his vocal dominance and quickly strode towards the house, with Tsukishima lazily following behind- seemingly unaffected by his impervious scent.

"Sit down at the FUCKING table," he growled through gnashed teeth at the slumped figures ahead of him. As they entered the unpleasant confines of the yellow house, he slammed the door behind them, and quickly turned to his captain.

"Daichi, I smell injured Omegas upstairs. Go and figure out who needs medical treatment and report back."

The captain nodded slowly, reaching behind his back to harshly yank a large chunk of glass, embedded in his shoulder blade. _Jesus Christ,_ Ukai thought to himself with a visible shudder, _the balls on the kid...pulling that out like it was nothing._

"Where is Suga. I don't smell him," Daichi asserted, tossing the bloody shard to the hardwood in front of him.

"Safe. With Miyo. Now go," Ukai growled back in half-command. While he was pleased that his captain held concern for the silver haired Omega, he needed the boy's help- he was the only remaining Alpha with some measure of control over his feral nature, the others had gone with Miyo.

Daichi hesitated, digesting his response, then swiftly turned on his heels and jogged up the narrow staircase, taking them two at a time. Ukai watched the captain disappear into the darkness before raking his attention back to the three remaining teammates- all exuding dominant scents of unchecked rage, unwilling to reign in their primal instincts.

"Asahi," Ukai warned as he approached the table, "don't move a fucking muscle. What the fuck is your problem, anyways?" He hissed through gnashed teeth, doing his best to remain impartial to the overbearing, feral scent of the room.

When his question was greeted with hostile silence, he unleashed another fresh dose of dominance. Asahi shied away from his potent scent, quietly growling in a continuous loop of irritation.

"You have the fucking floor. Say what you need to goddamn say!" Ukai hotly commanded, growing very irritated with the ace's combative scent.

The bunned giant straightened up in his seat and released a low, guttural growl. "Nishinoya was being attacked by those fucking Alphas, and neither of these two fuckers," he paused, pointing aggressively at his teammates across from him, "neither of them did a single fucking thing."

"You weren't fucking there," Tsukishima replied, his tone contentious and challenging. "You have no idea what happened. You left your Omega out to dry. That's _your_ problem, not mine."

Asahi burst up from his seat and leaned over the table, snarling viciously. "YOU LET THEM TOUCH HIM! YOU LET THEM!"

"WE TRIED TO KEEP HIM SAFE!" Tobio exploded back, standing up with such force that his chair was thrown back against the wall behind him. "YOU. WERE. NOT. THERE."

"There were fucking four guys, Asahi," Tsukishima chastised, crossing his long arms over his chest. "Where the fuck were you? Why weren't _you_ there to protect _your_ Omega?"

Ukai couldn't help but be impressed by the the snarky middle blocker, _he hadn't flinched so much as an inch at the barbaric roar from his giant teammate._

Asahi paused for a moment, his broad chest rising and falling as he took in sharp breaths of anger. "I couldn't keep up," he stated at last, his tone laced with personal frustration. "I couldn't keep up. I fell behind."

"You what?" Tsukishima questioned in a challenging tone, smirking slightly at his teammate's unwilling confession. "You couldn't keep up with the shrimpy kid?"

"I fell," the bunned giant reiterated, his mouth set in a hard line. "I had too much to fucking drink, so I fucking fell. I couldn't keep up with him, okay? He ran ahead of me. I couldn't keep up."

"Asahi," Tobio growled deeply, his black eyes fixated on the ace's dejected shoulders. "I tried to keep him safe. I couldn't get to him. I'm sorry. I tried, but there were too many. Too many of _them,_ " he rambled out, his tone boiling over with renewed anger at his recollection. "Four. Against him and me. We did what we could. What were we supposed to do."

Although Ukai knew that his setter's words were growing choppy from another instinctual flare up, he was nonetheless pleased that he and Asahi, were finally using their words, rather than their violent Alpha urges, to communicate their frustrations with one another. Based on their new fragrances, snaking their way into air, it was abundantly clear that both boys were furious at _themselves_ , not each other, for being so helpless in the situation.

_Furious for allowing their...no...that wasn't correct..._

Ukai furrowed his brows in confusion, noticing that the unnatural fragrance in the air was similar to what he had smelled when he first arrived at the house. It was almost... _familial in nature...as if...their self-deprecating anger was aimed at their own failures to protect each other's Omegas._ He shook his head, _that was impossible._ Unless there was a familial bond involved, Alphas never held mutual care for Omegas. He sniffed the air once more, this time pulling more of the curious scent into his nostrils, only to land himself with the same, unusual conclusion. _Pack_. Here his team stood, defying all odds, all expectations...blending themselves together into a familial pack of their own volition. He was truly shell shocked by the realization.

"Yeah…" Tsukishima yawned, stretching his arms into the air, slightly wincing in pain as he did so. "I tried, too. Nishinoya was so far away from the _other Alphas_. We couldn't take on four of them, and believe me, we tried."

As Asahi sluggishly sat back in his dining chair, placing his head in his large hands, Ukai was hit with massive amount of shame. Before he had a chance to interject, to say something that would comfort his ace, Daichi startled him from behind with a jotly report.

"They all need to go. _All of them._ Some more than others, but they all need to go. If I had to prioritize, it would definitely be Yachi or...Yamaguchi, his arm is in rough shape."

Ukai put a hand on his captain's shoulder, he hadn't even noticed the boy's approach- he had been too fixated on the unusual pack-like scent.

"Take Asahi outside. Talk him through some stuff," he asserted, thankful the the captain had been wise enough to keep the conversation between the two of them. If Tsukishima had heard about the freckled boy, _Yamaguchi,_ all of his efforts to calm the tense situation would have gone down the drain. "I'll call you guys when Miyo gets back and we'll all go to the hospital. Some of you guys need to get checked out too."

"With all due respect, coach, I'd rather prioritize the Omegas," Daichi replied, unable to hide the hostility from his tone at Ukai's decision.

"With all due respect, _captain,_ I am the house advisor here. Everyone is going for treatment. Now, take Asahi outside, and do what you do best, calm him down."

 _It was not up for debate._ Daichi had pulled a large shard of glass from his back leaving a deep laceration that, by the amount of blood stained into his grey shirt, needed stitches. Tsukishima's face was more than a little swollen, and he was tapping his disfigured fingers on the table in front of him, unphased by their broken state. Then, there was Tobio. The bright lighting inside the house illuminated his damaged arm to such a degree that Ukai had to force himself to look at its ghastly mess of raw skin.

Daichi nodded in understanding, his own eyes flickering to Tobio's damaged limb. "Come on, big guy," he growled gently, shuffling his bunned teammate towards the front door. "Let's go get some fresh air. You're always so hard on yourself, come on, cut yourself some slack for once, man."

As the captain's words faded out, Ukai returned his attention to the remaining Alphas. Although they had resolved things with Asahi, the two boys retained their air of hostility. While they normally held nothing but discontent towards each other, this time, it was different. It was amplified. Hostility was one thing, but the emotional state they currently held was an infuriated chaos- close to boiling over to a damaging, physical altercation. _Huh,_ Ukai thought to himself, stifling a chuckle, _it was a miracle that they had been able to work together against the intruders. They would hardly work together on the same volleyball team._

"So," he began as he sat down in Asahi's empty chair, eager to diffuse the tense situation. "Who's next? Who's got something they want to say? Tsukishima? You've been your usual, impassive self. Care to start us off?"

The blonde boy clicked his tongue in irritation and looked away with a sly shrug. "Tobio tuned out during the fight. Made me do all the work. Almost let one of them get away with Yamaguchi," he rattled off in an overtly nasty tone that nearly made Ukai flinch back.

"I already fucking told you," Tobio seethed back in frustration, leaning towards the snarky Alpha. "Yamaguchi's scent had me fucking paralyzed. I wanted to move, but I couldn't. It's not my fault."

"What a fucking story!" Tsukishima drawled back with narrow eyes, releasing waves of unbent hatred into the air around them. "You were probably just being your usual, selfish self. If it had been Shoyo, you would have been on the guy in an instant, but no, it was _Yamaguchi_."

"I WASN'T BEING SELFISH!" Tobio roared out, forcing Ukai to release a warning growl when he made a sudden move to tackle his teammate across the table. "I COULDN'T FUCKING MOVE. I WAS FROZEN."

 _Paralyzed by the scent of an Omega_...Ukai pondered, remembering the previous events with Miyo in the backyard, _perhaps, it was something similar?_

"What did you feel?" He asked, startling the boys back to silence with his abrupt change of tone- genuinely curious to hear more from the setter.

"I-" Tobio began, his narrow brows furrowed, unsure of what to say. "I don't know. I just felt exhausted and everything just seemed...really far away. It was so...stifling. I could barely see, or hear, or even feel anything at all. I just wanted to...sleep."

"What a fucking convenient story," Tsukishima snapped back, but Ukai silenced him with an admonishing snarl.

"He's telling the truth," he asserted to his blonde middle blocker.

He was knowingly certain of it- _Tobio had described, word for word, how he had felt under Miyo's blanketing fragrance._ He was definitely going to have a chat with the beautiful woman, after everything was settled back to normal. He had never experienced such a powerful Omega scent. _What she aware of what she was doing? Was it by accident?_

"The Omega house adviser…" he continued in explanation, directing most it to the skeptical blonde Alpha on his right. "She paralyzed five _feral_ Alphas in the backyard, including me, not fifteen minutes ago. I've never experienced anything like it, but there's no way it's a coincidence...Tsukishima, for christs sake. Would you stop with that critical look? Just because something is previously unheard of, doesn't mean it isn't true. Has Tobio ever lied to you, honestly, has he?"

Tsukishima rolled his eyes, huffing out a puff of frustrated air. "No...but he's still a selfish asshole."

"That is not what I'm trying to reconcile here," Ukai barked, rolling his tense shoulders to ease the muscles. "My point it, Tobio isn't fucking lying. So drop it."

"Fine, but he still broke Yamaguchi's fucking arm. I won't forget that," the blonde Alpha droned back with hostility, cleaning his broken glasses on his dirty shirt.

"I already told you. I'm fucking sorry. I didn't know what to do. Tackling Emon seemed like the best option at the time," Tobio seethed back, releasing a frustrated fragrance that was laced with subtle tones of... _shame?_

 _Again with that scent,_ Ukai thought to himself, subconsciously admiring its power, _a pack-like scent that calls out for mutual defense of the Omegas. Strange._

"Okay. That's enough," he growled, wanting to put the entire ordeal to rest- there were injuries to see to. "Drop it. All of it. You both did the best you could against four attackers. No one was killed. Cut yourselves, and each other, some fucking slack," he finished with a heavy sigh, wishing, yet again, that the two boys would come to understand that they were on the _same team._ Where Tobio and Asahi's mutual pack-like scent had conjoined, his and Tsukishima's were in opposition- combative, like oil and water.

"Fine. It's dropped," Tsukishima stated plainly, pulling himself up, with great effort, from his seated position at the table. "I'm going to check on Yamaguchi."

"No," Ukai interjected, releasing his dominant scent one, final time, to get his way. "Not a single Alpha in this house is going near them. You're all too feral. That is my decision. It is final."

Tsukishima's face flexed beneath its faint purple swelling, but he compliantly lowered himself back to his seat. Ukai ignored the boy's toxic, combative scent. He had learned a lot from Miyo, and there was no way he was going to allow his boy's near the Omegas- not until he was certain that they had fully regained their sanity.

**Suga~**

As Suga sped down the dimly lit highway in Miyo's black Audi, he clung to the holder on the roof as if his life depended on it. He wasn't the only passenger panicked by her high speed driving- Keiji's scent, radiating out from the seat behind him, was unapologetically anxious and the two Alphas seated beside him, holding an unconscious Oikawa across their laps, maintained stiff, disconcerted facial expressions.

"Suga?" Miyo asked in more statement than question, her emerald eyes fixed on the road ahead. "Can you hold the wheel a second? I need to make a call."

"Um, I don't have a license…" He began in objection, only to be disregarded by his professor with a quick wave of her delicate hand.

"You'll be fine, it's just for a second."

He took in massive breath to calm his nerves and leaned in towards the woman. As he moved closer, her calm, yet resolved, scent swirled into his open nostrils, putting him at ease with its tranquility. He gripped onto the leather steering wheel with white knuckles and fixed his gaze on the highway in front of them- inwardly thankful that traffic was light at such a late hour. _She was just making a phone call...couldn't she multitask? Drive and talk, that's what normal people did._

"Hello? Momo? It's Miyo. Hi, good to talk to you…" His professor began, chatting into the device at her ear. "I need a favor...yes...how busy are you guys tonight?" She paused, then let out a hum of understanding and a puff of relieved air. "I see...no more than usual. Listen, my Omegas are all really injured…"

Suga heard the voice on the other line grow louder in panic, babbling back furiously at a high pitch of static.

"They're okay. It's okay," Miyo interjected the panicked chatter, keeping her own voice level and calm. "I'll give you the details when I get there. So, about the favor…remember what I told you the other day? Yeah, when we had coffee. Mhm. Well the Alphas are all pretty injured too…"

 _The Alphas.._.Suga thought to himself, gripping the steering wheel harder as a blue car flashed by on his right, _what was she planning?_

"They're all good boys...I promise. I know it's not exactly protocol, but I don't think it would be a good idea to separate them…" She briefly paused, listening to a response, then continued. "Yeah...exactly. Is there anyway you could swing that? I would be in your debt..." She put a small hand to the mouthpiece of the phone, covering the receiver, and turned to face Suga's tense form. "How many Alphas are there? In your house? No, wait, how many were at the party?"

"Um...nine..." He responded after a quick mental count. _Including Bokuto and Yuji...yes, there were nine._

"There are nine of them, all male Alphas," Miyo repeated his words into the phone, glancing out her driver's side window with a forlorn expression. "No...I don't think any of them are mated yet…?" She said with an upwards inflection, glancing back to Suga in question. Careful to keep one hand on the steering wheel, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Kuroo and mouthed the word, _one._

"Wait," Miyo nodded, chatting into the receiver once more. "One pair is mated...yes, exactly. I promise, Momo. I swear on my honour, they will behave exceptionally. I'll personally see to it…"

Suga could hear the determination behind every word she spoke and a small smile passed over his dry lips at her admirable resolve- she was definitely someone he could look up to... _someone he wanted to look up to._

"Perfect. Thank you _so_ much. Yes, we'll be there in a bit. Okay...yes...see you soon, Momo," the professor finished, dropping her phone into her lap with a sigh.

She shooed his hands from the wheel and the group continued the rest of their journey in silence- even the normally talkative Bokuto wasn't in the mood. Suga couldn't blame the Kuroo for his quiet intensity, unlike the owl, the rooster had left his Omega back at the house. A decision which Suga found incredibly admirable, if not unusual- _a mated pair willingly separating for the good of their friends? It was unheard of._..and he was absolutely certain that it was something to do with the growing pack mentality among the yellow house inhabitants.

As he filed away the puzzle piece, eager to share it with Daichi, his thoughts flickered over the night's events. I _t had started out so well, so perfect, but the past had caught up to his nest- destroying all of the progress they had worked so hard for...destroyed their safety. However,_ he pondered, gazing out into the dark night through his closed window, _there was one positive that had come out of the mess- his Alpha house mates had more than proven themselves as devoted to his flock._ Suddenly, the 1979 article flickered across his mind, alerting him that he needed to get his hands on it again. He knew in his heart that it had answers.

**Bokuto~**

"Suga, Keiji, take Oikawa into the hospital. Ask for Momo. We'll be right behind you," the female Omega, _the terrible driver_ , commanded, craning her head over her driver's seat. She had pulled the car to an abrupt, _very abrupt_ , stop in front of the emergency entrance of the large, white building. The lighting from the neon hospital sign above illuminated the confines of the vehicle in an ominous red hue- Bokuto didn't like the colour on Oikawa's pale skin, it made the Omega's injuries seem even worse than they already were.

When Kuroo shuffled out of the car, he followed suit, gently pushing Oikawa's limp form out in front of him and into the rooster's awaiting arms. Once the injured boy had been successfully passed off to Suga and Keiji, the female Omega briskly walked around the car to stand in from of he and Kuroo. Based on her previous telephone conversation, he was fairly certain that he had caught her name, _Miyo._

Miyo, the terrifying Omega who had paralyzed him with her stifling scent and commanded him to get into the car with such intensity that he wanted nothing more than to comply. After what he experienced, he looked upon her with simultaneous trepidation and veneration.

"I need you both to listen very carefully," the Omega house advisor said sternly, her intimidating gaze flickering between him and Kuroo. "I am putting my reputation on the line here. Ukai and Suga have both tried to convince me that you guys are noble Alphas who have a huge amount of control over your instincts. But, after what I saw in the yard…"

"That's not who we are," Kuroo barked in interruption, releasing an irritated growl at her provoking words.

"Then prove it. I'm giving you guys a chance here. This is an _Omega_ hospital. They normally only allow mated Alphas inside. _Calm_ mated Alphas," she challenged, pointing a delicate finger into their wooden faces.

 _The blue polish on her long nails definitely suited her personality_ , Bokuto thought to himself with a subtle nod of approval, _she was ambiguous and surprising- just like the color._ He suppressed his innate desire to voice the opinion, it was a compliment he would have to sit on, and tuned his attention back to the lecture.

"...so keep your shit together. There are going to be a lot of overwhelming scents inside. Do _not_ let them affect your actions or I'll have you out of there in an instant. There is no second chance here. You're in once, and if you fuck up, you're out," the professor finished, snapping her fingers in front of their faces to emphasize her point.

Her words held nothing but severe honesty, and Bokuto found himself not wanting to disappoint her. However, more than that, he didn't want to be pulled away from Keiji. One slip up inside, and he would be separated from the icy boy- separated from _his_ injured Omega. He internally promised that he was going to keep his shit together, he had no other option if he was going to satisfy his instinct to remain near the boy.

"No problem," Kuroo asserted, nodding his head in understanding. "No fuck ups, or we're out."

"We won't let you down!" Bokuto added in, flashing a toothy grin to ease the heavy situation. He didn't like the deadly serious vibe in the air. In fact, there was never a situation in which he did like it- he thrived in comedic, lighthearted circumstances, not dark, depressing instances like the one he had landed himself in.

"Good," Miyo replied before turning to walk towards the automatic doors of the white building. "I'll go get your escort. Wait here a moment, and for the love of god, please keep it together."

_Escort?_

"You didn't think that they would just let us waltz right in, did you?" Kuroo chastised him with a sly smirk, smelling his confused fragrance.

"Yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking…" Bokuto replied with a sheepish laugh, running a large hand through his hair in embarrassment.

"Oh fuck!" Kuroo abruptly shouted in a frantic tone, startling him into a flinch. "I forgot to tell Kenma where I was going…that fucked up shit in the yard just...I just got in the car without thinking..."

He watched as the rooster struggled to yank the phone from his sweatpants, his large hands shaking as he furiously typed onto the small screen. Bokuto knew the source of his teammate's upset and he understood the unpleasant feeling, albeit, to a lesser extent- _an Alpha unwillingly separated from their Omega. From their mate._

"Yeah…" he said quietly, forcing his thoughts to shift back to the disturbing event. "It was fucking weird. I've never felt like that before. Just...frozen in place, and then suddenly _needing_ to do exactly what she yelled at me...like, _needing_ to, y'know?"

Kuroo finished typing on the device and glanced up, catching his gaze with terrified, knowing eyes. "Mhm...we'll have to ask Suga about it when we get the chance," he agreed before turning his attention to the white building beyond. "Seems like our escort is here. You better fucking stay cool. If I get kicked out 'cause you can't hack it, I'm going to be so pissed."

Bokuto huffed out in irritation and rolled his eyes, _he was not going to get kicked out._ He raked his eyes over three large men, clad in white scrubs, walking towards them. After sniffing the air, he was shocked to find that they were all Omegas. They certainly didn't have the build, they were much taller, and their muscles more toned. From sight alone, they could easily be mistaken for dominant Alphas. He had never seen Omegas like them before, and he was more than certain that he wouldn't be able to take any of them in a fight- _even one-on-one._ At that thought, he chuckled to himself, receiving an audible tsk from Kuroo in return. He couldn't deny that his recent friendship with the yellow house Omegas had exposed him to new knowledge and experiences, and for that, he was grateful.

**Suga~**

Suga sat in the waiting area, lost in thought. Momo, who he quickly found out was the head nurse, had set aside one of the private sections of the hospital to segregate the group. While it was meant as a precaution, the secluded area was better decorated and stocked with amenities that the public areas of the hospital, areas which he was all too familiar with, lacked. Furthermore, the private section was cordoned off from the anxious Omega fragrances that were permeating through the building- helping their Alphas to remain, at least, somewhat calm. He was more than a little grateful, and somewhat shocked, that Momo had been able to convince her senior staff to allow their Alphas into the hospital at all... _but this?_ _They were inadvertently being treated like royalty. He and his housemates owed Miyo a debt of gratitude for securing them such wonderful medical care._

His professor had driven back to the house nearly an hour earlier, and had recently returned with Ukai and the remaining house members. Yachi and Yamaguchi were both immediately ushered into separate rooms for treatment, the former still unconscious from her earlier altercation with _Chaki_ , while the latter was taken to have x-rays done on his damaged arm. Shoyo and Nishinoya were called in soon after, both retained deep head wounds that likely needed stitches. Keiji was the only nestmate who remained behind, seated beside him in the waiting room- unwilling to get treatment until the rest of the flock had been examined. Finally, Kenma was with the now at ease Kuroo, perched in his lap across the room in an intoxicated sleep.

Unlike the Omegas, the Alphas were all congregated in the waiting room, some sitting, others leaning against the white walls. While Momo couldn't promise them treatment, explaining that only the staff who willingly volunteered would provide assistance, he was pleased when two female nurses strolled into the area. Suga watched on with growing interest as the blonde nurse quickly analyzed the room- _likely trying to ascertain which of the Alphas needed to be prioritized._ She was clearly the more experienced of the two nurses, the black haired girl at her side looked more nervous, and much younger.

"You all look like shit!" The blonde woman suddenly chirped into the silent air, successfully lightening the mood of the room.

"Hey!" Tanaka whistled back cheekily, happy to engage in the verbal banter. "You wouldn't look so hot either if you were outnumbered in a crazy, vicious fight!"

"Okay, I concede to your point," the nurse replied, putting her hands out in front of her in playful resignation- they were calloused and dry, overworked from continuous washing. "My name is Saori, and this lovely lady is Kiyoko. If you guys don't mind giving us a second? We need to figure out which of you poor boys needs to be treated first, okay?"

"Thanks so much for your help," Daichi responded with a grateful nod of admiration. "We are absolutely in your debt."

When the captain abruptly rose to his feet and bowed low in respect, Suga looked up at the man standing next to him and nearly died from a sudden rush of fondness for the Alpha. He raked his gaze over the other boys, watching through wide eyes as, one by one, they followed their captain's motion. The sincere gesture prompted the head nurse to unleash a wicked smile and the black haired woman next to her blushed a soft pink.

"Okay, okay! That's enough! You're going to make my heart stop!" The blonde woman pronounced, holding a hand over her chest in feigned stress. "Okay, looking at all you boys together like this...let's take...you," she continued, gesturing to Tobio's exhausted figure. "And...you. The poor kid with the glasses. I mean, what good are your glasses when your face is that swollen!"

 _The nurse was absolutely right in taking those two first_ \- _Tobio was, by far, in the worst shape out of the bunch._ He had, what Suga could only describe as road rash, up the entire length of left arm and it had recently started oozing a clear, viscous liquid. Plus, the right side of his pale face was heavily bruised and the opposing eye was swollen shut with crusted blood. Tsukishima was hardly in better shape- his entire face marked up with bruises, inflated from repeated hits to the head. Then there were his gnarled fingers... _most of them looked unusable._

Suga watched on with relief as the two nurses shuffled the Alphas down the hallway and into separate rooms. Although he was happy that everyone was at long last receiving much needed medical attention, he was irritated that he hadn't heard any news about the state of his flock- _particularly Oikawa_. At that sullen thought, he glanced up to find Hajime, his tense figure slumped against a white wall across the room. Suga lightly sniffed the air, picking up on subtle hints of frustration rolling off the boy in small, yet prominent waves. By scent, he was definitely the most panicked of the Alphas, with Yuji coming in at a close second. _Both of them needed to be calmed before their upset fragrances devolved further and the hospital kicked them out..._

"Daichi…" He leaned in close to the Alpha by his side, whispering quietly into his ear.

Daichi sluggishly squeezed his large hand, already placed on Suga's thigh, and his Alpha scent wafted forward with an intense, protective fragrance.

_He wanted to bathe in it, then go to sleep..._

"I think I should talk to Hajime…" He continued, shaking off the lingering effects of the lovely scent. After witnessing Hajime's frantic state from earlier that evening, he wanted Daichi to weight in on the decision- _he was the captain, after all._

"Yeah…" Daichi responded softly as he swept his lips over Suga's temple, kissing it gently. "Yuji needs a chat, too…"

"It's kind of out of the blue...don't you think?" Suga purred in reply, overly content with the close proximity of _his_ Alpha. _His Alpha..._

"What is…?" Daichi hummed into the side of the his head, inhaling deeply into his silver hair.

"Yuji...I mean, did you see how frantic he was about Yachi?"

He felt the dark Alpha slightly sigh against his neck, the warm breath sent shivers down his spine. _Had he...referred to Daichi as his? Had he done that?_

"I was talking with Tanaka about it in the car," Daichi mumbled, nuzzling further into his scent glands. "Apparently, he went absolutely feral over the whole thing. I guess...Yachi got hurt and he just lost all control."

"But...they just met today…? Right…?" Suga furrowed his brows and whispered, more to himself than to Daichi.

"I mean…I was in love with you from the instant I smelled your scent..." The Alpha murmured as he nestled into his delicate shoulder, releasing subtle growls of of unchecked affection. "Maybe, it's something similar? Bokuto's investment in Keiji isn't much different, either."

"Yeah...maybe..." Suga responded in a hushed tone, warmth pooling deep in his abdomen at Daichi's honest words. A small smile flickered across his face as he grew distracted by the Alpha's lustful scent, but he shoved down his lingering feelings of arousal and stood up, filing away Daichi's admission of love- they could talk about it later. "I'll take Hajime, you take Yuji?"

Daichi nodded with a yawn and sluggishly rose to his feet, rolling his neck to relax his tight muscles. It was nearly 3:00am and Suga was equally as exhausted, but there was no chance that either of them would be sleeping anytime soon. _As the unofficial matriarch and patriarch of their hybrid pack, they had work to do._


	22. The Spirit of Alphas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taaaaaaaaakin' care of business, to get to fluff!
> 
> Thanks 4 reading :D

**Chapter Twenty-Two: The Spirit of Alphas**

**Daichi~**

Daichi slumped down onto the plastic bench of the balcony beside Yuji. Being confined to the private area of the hospital certainly had its perks, but, private or not, the air was still stifling inside. He was grateful for the clean smell of the night air, it helped to wake his drowsy senses. A siren whistled out from below, the high pitched sound had nearly drowned out by the time it had reached the two Alphas, four stories above. He internally cringed at the fleeting thought it provoked, of the damaged Omega it was transporting. He hated being at the hospital, it forced him to witness just how large the extent of Alpha brutality was for the marginalized class. He shook his head, willing the dark thoughts away for a moment-  _he had come outside to console Yuji._

"You alright?" He asked at last, unable to help the exhausted tone of his voice. It had been an incredibly long night of unrelenting frustration and bitter anger.

Yuji adjusted himself on the bench and sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Yeah…"

He could smell his teammate's tense scent, upset with his own feral actions and at Yachi's damaged state.

"You don't smell okay," he pushed, trying to get the blonde Alpha to verbalize his twisting emotions.

"I dunno…" Yuji murmured, gingerly rubbing his swollen jaw. "Fuck. My face hurts. That nurse chick said that it's probably fractured which just... _pisses me off._ "

"Jesus christ," Daichi pronounced, leaning forward to glance at the blonde Alpha's bloated face. "Are you okay? Does it hurt to talk?"

"Yeah it's fine. I'm just pissed that fucker,  _Chaki,_  landed the hit on me," Yuji huffed out, sitting back against the bench to give his neck an irritated crack. "Just waiting to get my fucking scans back, but it's nothing compared to…"

Daichi knew exactly what his teammate had intended to say before trailing off- he was no stranger to this shit. He had been down this route himself, with Suga.

"Let me guess. You're furious with yourself for allowing Yachi to get hurt. Angry with the people who did it. And ashamed at your actions when you lost control," he stated plainly, cracking his knuckles to stir his sleepy senses.

"How did you-"

"Because, you're not the first Alpha around here to go through this shit," he continued, rising to his feet to stand across from the blonde boy. "I've gone through it with Suga. I'm sure that Kuroo's gone through it at some point with Kenma. And Hajime...fuck, the poor guy is going through it again right now..." he finished, trailing off as his mind lingered on his snarky teammate.  _Hajime...Oikawa_...mental images of the two boys skittered across his consciousness, sending sharp pangs of grief through his entire being. He couldn't imagine what the Alpha was feeling.  _If had been Suga..._

"Does it get any better?" Yuji questioned, releasing a heavy sigh of indignation.

"Honestly…" Daichi faltered, unsure of what information to relay. Things hadn't exactly gotten better for him when it came to Suga. Every time the silver haired boy was out of the range of his senses, even within their yellow house, he had to physically squash his internal panic. "I don't know. I hope so? But, honestly, I don't think that it will. At least, not right away."

He couldn't lie to Yuji, it wouldn't be right. If the blonde Alpha really wanted to be with Yachi, then he needed to fully commit to the frustrations that came with being mated. Or at least, the ones that came with  _wanting_  to mate with an Omega. He hadn't exactly been given any sort of recognition from Suga when it came to the whole, mating thing. However, from watching Kuroo and Kenma's interactions, the desire to ensure an Omega's safety seemed to greatly increase after the event-  _well, if the pack instinct is taken out of the equation…_

"Great," Yuji huffed, patting his swollen jaw with care. "I don't know if I can deal with this shit. It's been one day, man, and I already feel like I'm going mad."

"The positives outweigh the negatives, though," Daichi remarked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"Oh yeah?"

"I'm serious. When I'm around Suga...I don't know, the world just sort of, falls away. Like, even now, I feel empty without his scent," he explained, furrowing his brows as he grappled to find the right words. "I know that I've only known him three weeks, so the whole thing is _insane,_  but honestly...I can't even remember what things were like before him."

"When did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That you loved him. That you loved Suga. I mean, my parents are both Alphas, arranged marriage, you know the deal. Anything to try and ensure an Alpha offspring..." Yuji denounced, his conflicted scent altering Daichi that he was confused about his feelings for Yachi- grappling with the idea, trying to understand where they suddenly had come from. He didn't have any experience with Alpha-Omega relationships, and unfortunately, Daichi didn't either.

"Yeah, mine are too. Not arranged though, they dated for a few years before they married, I think. Pretty sure they didn't love each other right away...or after they married, for that matter," Daichi agreed, pulling a piece of grass from the collar of his shirt to blow over the metal railing- remnants of his brawl with Asahi.

"So, when did you know?"

"The first time I smelled him. The day they moved in with us," he said with a hearty laugh. He had never been one to believe in love at first sight, but Alpha-Omega relations definitely gave the idea credibility.

"When you first smelled him, eh?" Yuji drawled, standing up to stretch his tired body into the air. As his torn, orange shirt flexed over his lean muscles, he winced slightly in pain.

_Yet another Alpha with broken ribs, thank god it was the off season of volleyball._

"When you first smelled him," the blonde Alpha repeating again, gingerly leaning onto the metal railing beside him.

"Pretty much, yeah," Daichi affirmed, mirroring Yuji's relaxed position- the city below them was quiet, fast asleep at such a late hour.

"Roses. I smelled them during our game with Date Tech. It was so bizarre, too. I followed the scent after we had won, y'know. Tracked it up into the bleachers."

Daichi couldn't hide his surprise at the admission.  _If Yuji had smelled her from that distance...the court was nowhere near the bleachers! He could barely smell Suga from that length. On top of that, Yachi's scent wasn't exactly powerful. Something about her fragrance must have riled up his Alpha instincts..._

"She was so frightened when I first met her. I couldn't figure out why...but then that fucker... _Chaki_ …" Yuji trailed off in a snarl, unleashing a powerful scent of rage that would have gotten him booted from the hospital, had they been indoors. "I fucking attacked her! I didn't even recognize her, after everything with  _Chaki_ , I didn't even remember that she was there. That's how far gone I was."

"Did you hurt her?" Daichi asked, hoping that the answer was no. He had been in a similar position, nearly attacking Oikawa a few weeks earlier, and it had not been fun.

"She said that I didn't, but does it fucking matter?" His teammate snapped back, baring his teeth in a hostile snarl at his own, previous actions.

"Of course it fucking matters. If you were feral and you didn't hurt her, then what does that tell you?" Daichi stated plainly, happy to see Yuji's tense form visibly relax at his honest words. He clapped the blonde Alpha on the back and continued, "dwelling on their pasts doesn't help anyone. Believe me, I learned that the hard way. The best we can do is protect them. Or figure out how to fucking protect them from shit like what happened today."

"I guess…but fuck, man. That  _Chaki_ motherfucker, I don't know what he did to her, but I know it wasn't good. It makes my blood boil."

"Yeah...it wasn't good. But, do you know how mad it makes me when I think about all the bullshit Suga has had to go through? Or Oikawa? Or any of them? It makes me fucking sick to my stomach," Daichi replied, unable to prevent himself from snarling out into the night air. "There's literally nothing I can do to change what happened to them in the past. All I can do it work my ass off to make it safer for them in the future. I will say this though...they are definitely a hardy folk. Much stronger than Alphas," he finished, steadying his shaking body against the railing, willing his body to relax back to its previously tired state. He  _did not_  want to get kicked out of the hospital.

"Yeah. Fuck. The shit that those knotheads were saying to Oikawa made me want to slice out their vocal cords...and their retinas...and their brains. I mean, the stuff they fucking did to him! I don't know how he lived through it...and he still faced them head on like it was nothing. Told me to leave and let him handle things," Yuji barked out, his scent aggravated, but under control.

"Scum. Absolute scum," Daichi nodded in agreement, slowly forgetting his own upset in his admiration for the chestnut Omega. "Oikawa is the best of the best. Strongest guy I know, for sure."

Yuji let out a relaxed breath of air and craned his neck up at the dark sky. "You know...you're pretty good at this therapy shit. No wonder you're our captain!"

"Yeah, well, believe me, I've got experience with this shit. I've lost my head over this stuff more times than I can count...and it's only been three weeks," he replied, rubbing sleep from his dark eyes with his knuckles.

"I guess we've gotta learn to live with it, hey?" Yuji reckoned, lolling his head over to meet the his gaze, eyeing him down with chocolate coloured eyes.

"For now."

"Oh?"

"With the shit I've seen, I can't, in good conscious, just allow this fucked up system to continue. Especially after today."

"Ohhhhhhhh!" Yuji sang into the air, poking his captain playfully in the shoulder. "I get ya. I get ya. Fuck the system! Let's go rogue!"

"Or change it, you know, whatever works," Daichi agreed with a snicker.

He hadn't mentioned his idea to any of the other Alphas- or even Suga. For some reason, Yuji's easy personality made him feel comfortable enough to openly talk about it, and he was beyond grateful that his teammate sponsored the idea. As the pair continued to discuss the Omegas, he found himself increasingly content with the pierced Alpha's rambunctious company. They formed a plan for him to approach Yachi with his feelings, then threw around ideas on how to prevent any future raid attempts on their home. If things went as planned, it wouldn't be long until Yuji moved into the yellow house for good.

**Suga~**

Suga rested his back against the pale blue wall of the hallway, sliding down into a seated position beside Hajime's stiff form. He released his calming scent at the fullest force he could muster, hoping it would do well to ease the tension in the air around them.

"How ya doing?" He asked in a genuine tone, knowing that it was going to be a challenge to get the pensive Alpha to discuss his feelings.

"I just...I'm exhausted," Hajime responded quietly, rolling his head back against the plaster to look up at the tiled ceiling.

"Exhausted how?" He pushed forward, unwilling to let the Alpha get away with such a half-assed answer.

"I'm tired," Hajime droned back, radiating out of flurry of emotional fragrances from his muscular figure.

"And?"

Hajime rolled his head over to meet his intense gaze "Really? What do you want me to say?" He barked back saltily, but Suga didn't take offense, it was just the Alpha's way of projecting his emotions.

"Oikawa's going to be okay, you know," he said kindly with a small smile, hoping that the Alpha wouldn't pick up that he was trying to convince himself of the words, too.

**Hajime~**

"Oikawa's going to be okay, you know," Suga said gently, flashing him with a hesitant smile.

For the first time since Hajime had met Oikawa, neither the conscious or instinctual parts of his mind wanted to think about the chesnut boy. There were too many things about the situation that would make him lose control if he allowed himself to relive them. Hearing about the Omega's past from the disgusting Alphas.  _Seeing him slump down with each degrading insult they threw his way. Watching on helplessly as Kabuto slammed his head into the faucet. He wanted to build a time machine and prevent everything from happening._

When Suga's sweet scent washed over him, he suddenly realized just how riled up he had become with the passing thoughts. "I can't talk about it," he stated plainly, resting his head on his knees in an attempt to physically escape his own mind.

"How come?"

"Because I'll fucking snap," he mumbled out from his arms. He knew that Suga was only trying to offer guidance, but he couldn't bear to think about such terrible things.  _Not right now. Not while his Omega was unconscious, bleeding, and out of his sight._

"You know…" The silver Omega started, his words coming out slowly as he chose them with care. "Oikawa is the strongest out of all of us. Stronger than you, too. But...I'm not going to sugar coat it for you. He's been through the worst of the worst. He's been a drug addict, a prostitute, degraded, raped, and assaulted."

As Suga plainly spoke about Oikawa, Hajime struggled to keep his emotions under his conscious control. He didn't care about the chestnut boy's past, at least, not in the way the Omega seemed to think. It supremely bothered him that Alphas had touched his Omega...that they had harmed him. He didn't care about any of the other stuff.

"But you know what?" Suga continued, his tone shifting to an uplifting pitch. "He still tries to be happy. He starts every day of his life forcing out a smile, just hoping that it will be genuine one day. And guess what? Since he's met you, it  _has_  been genuine. Yeah, it's true, the things that have happened to him are disgusting and terrible, but he doesn't allow them to rule his life. Not anymore. Not since I've known him."

Hajime pulled his knees further into his chest, suddenly feeling an overbearing desire to cry from the brutal honesty of the words.  _Cry._ Hehadn't cried since he was a child, but when he had seen the lifeless form of his Omega in the grass, he broke that streak in an instant.

"I know it's not easy for you guys. It's one thing to go through terrible things, but its a whole other story to watch the people you love go through them," Suga added, pushing out more of his tranquil, sweet fragrance.

"I hate this feeling. I hate it," Hajime seethed into his knees, clenching his fists until his knuckles were white. "Being so fucking helpless. When he...when Oikawa jumped in to defend me…" He trailed off in frustration, unleashing a bitter snarl as the mental image of Kabuto, standing over his Omega, flickered across his mine.

"Are you mad that he jumped in to protect you?" Suga asked softly, moving his hand to Hajime's tense back, rubbing it in small, continuous circles.

"Yes...No," Hajime barked in response, scrunching up his toes inside his shoes. Every part of his body felt rigid and his mind had been clouded by his own primal nature for was seemed like an eternity now.

Suga laughed at his confusing response, and his chocolate scent flooded the air once more, doing well to counter his Alpha inhibitions- pushing to take control of his fragile mind.

"Which is it, because either way, you're going to have to deal with it. This is Oikawa we're talking about. He never backs out of a fight."

Hajime relaxed his fists, sighing deeply into his bent knees. He wasn't mad that Oikawa jumped in to defend him, he was mad that the boy  _had_  to jump in. Mad that his own strength wasn't enough to protect his Omega.

"I'm not angry about it. I'm just... _furious_  with myself for not being able to protect him. After  _he._..when Kabuto hit him...I just…" Hajime faltered, outwardly voicing his frustrations was plummeting his mind into a dark place he had no desire to visit.

"I don't think-"

"He smashed his head in, Suga. He smashed his fucking head in," Hajime exclaimed, allowing his upset emotions to pour into his words. "I watched it happen. Everything inside of me was roaring at me. Screaming at me to move, but I couldn't fucking do anything. My body wouldn't listen. I wanted to slaughter Kabuto. I still want to slaughter him," he snarled out, stabbing the fleeting mental image of Kabuto with his internal fists. "You know, when I went on my walk to cool down? I didn't go anywhere. I just stood over his fucking unconscious body in the alley for an hour until I heard Ukai call for everyone to get into the car. I wish... _I wish_  I had fucking done it, too. Just ended his pathetic life then and there."

The instant he stopped his train of thought to take an angry breath of air, he was surprised to find himself standing, bristling in front of Suga's seated from- snarling viciously into the Omega's calm face.  _How was he calm? Why wasn't the boy scared that he might attack him?_

"I know you're not going to attack me, Hajime, stop making that face. You're going to get wrinkles," Suga chirped to him, as if he had heard the internal thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get to worked up," Hajime apologized, pacing from side to side in frustration. "I just. I'm so fucking  _angry_. I hate that I can't see him. I hate that I don't know if he's okay."

"Don't apologize. Why do you think it's wrong to be worked up about this stuff? It's natural. I'd be worried if you  _weren't_  worked up about it," the silver Omega replied matter-of-factly, cocking an eyebrow.

It was a simple statement. An obvious one, even. However, it was something that Hajime hadn't thought of. He had been so focused on the idea that his emotions were wrong.  _That he was wrong to be angry, wrong to be upset about Oikawa_ \- he had somehow convinced himself that the emotions represented his ownership over the Omega. However, he didn't want that, he wanted Oikawa to be his partner.

"I want to kill Kabuto, too, you know…" Suga said in almost a whisper, looking down at his pale hands in his lap. "You're not alone in that."

Hajime inhaled deeply and reached out a hand to the seated Omega before him. Suga smiled sweetly, accepted his offer, and he pulled the weightless boy to his feet with ease.

"Thanks…" He said softly, releasing the silver haired Omega from his grasp. "I guess...I should...that it's okay to feel this way."

"It's no problem at all. You're my friend," Suga said with a affectionate grin that made Hajime want to embrace him in thanks. "Feelings don't mean...ownership, if that's what you're thinking. You can't... _not_  have emotional responses in a relationship, right? I don't know if that makes sense, but I hope it does..."

"Yeah...I get ya," Hajime replied, sheepishly running a hand through his hair, tangled with patches of dried blood. "Well, I appreciate it. You're always looking out for me. It's...nice."

Suga casually shrugged, subtly smirking in the dim light of the hall. "You look out for my flock. I look out for you. Now…" He trailed off, giving Hajime a playful punch in the shoulder. "Let's go see if we can get some info on Oikawa  _and_  get you in with one of the nurses. You're in rough shape. Like, really rough shape."

Hajime nodded and followed the silver Omega back into the waiting room, eager to hear  _something, anything_  about Oikawa.

**Yachi~**

When Yachi flickered her eyes open, she flew into a panic at her unfamiliar surroundings. Everything smelled  _wrong_...and the white environment of the room hurt her eyes, burning them with its bright intensity. As she sluggishly tried to sit forward, an unfamiliar female voice called out to her. She sniffed, wincing at her pounding head as she did so- it was an Omega.

"Please don't get up too fast, Miss. Yachi. Take your time. You're in the hospital. I'll go and get Suga."

_Suga_ …

Yachi blinked to adjust her eyes and pushed herself to a seated position, unhappy that her head was not completely clear of foggy pain.

"Yachi!" Suga's warm voice hit her ears as she adjusted herself against the back of the bed.

"Hi…" Yachi croaked out to her friend, glancing at him as he hurried to close the gap between them.

"I'm so happy you're awake!" He exclaimed, embracing her in a light, motherly hug.

Yachi smiled at his warming presence, then quickly snapped her neck towards the unfamiliar scent near the open door of the room.  _A male Omega...in a white coat...a doctor._

"Good morning, Yachi! I'm glad to see you up!" He sang, opening the a file in his hands to flip through its contents. "I thought it would be good to briefly go over some things. I'll be discharging you in a few hours, so don't worry too much! You're in pretty good shape!"

Yachi nodded, searching the confines of her mind to remember what had happened to her.  _Chaki...Yuji protected her from him...Oikawa!_

"Where is Oikawa?!" She abruptly shouted, cringing to the side as a sharp pain shot through her back.

"He's okay, Yachi. He's okay," Suga soothingly reassured her, scratching her back with his nails.

"And Yuji?" She continued in question, visibly relaxing into Suga's embrace at the news of Oikawa.

"He's okay too. We sent the Alphas home a few hours ago, with most of the Omegas. Let's listen to what the doctor has to say first, okay? Then I can catch you up on everything."

Yachi nodded again, unhappy with the words,  _most of the Omegas._  However, she didn't want to waste the doctor's time with her flurry of questions, so she momentarily filed them away and turned her attention to the man with the file, eager to get her diagnoses over with.

"Now, Yachi. You're going to have to take it easy for a while. You have two broken ribs on your left side and, unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about that. You're cleared of concussion, which is excellent, but you did bump your head rather hard, so you may experience a few headaches over the next week. Be patient with yourself, okay? I know that Omegas heal significantly faster than their Alpha counterparts, but it's not going to happen right away. It will still take time," the man rattled off in explanation, his tone rushed but gentle. Then, he flashed her a wicked grin and briskly turned towards the door. "I hope you'll excuse me, there are a lot of people I need to see today, so I'm in a bit of a rush. Please come back if you have any problems, any at all. However...I really hope we don't meet again!" He finished with a chuckle, softly closing the door behind him.

"That fucker broke two of my ribs?!" Yachi exclaimed with wide, angry eyes, startling Suga with both her angry tone and vulgar language.

"Y-Yachi?!" Suga questioned, his mouth agape with astonishment.

"Chaki. He broke my ribs. That pisses me off," she explained, unsure of why Suga was so visibly shocked by her statement.  _He had broken her ribs...so, she was angry...?_

"Oh, Yachi!" The silver haired boy cried into the air as he embraced her, nestling himself into her neck. "I haven't h-heard y-you talk like this for s-so l-long," he blubbered into her hair, wetting the golden strands with his tears.

_Oh!_  Yachi thought to herself at once,  _now she understood. Ordinarily, discussing Chaki made her sick with fear, physically so, but here she was verbally bashing the monster._

"I spat right into his face, Suga! I looked him dead in the eyes and said _fuck you, Chaki!"_  She relayed with a genuine tone of pride, excited to share the news with her substitute mother.

She  _was_  proud of herself, but she knew that this new sense of safety she felt wasn't from standing up to Chaki. It was from Yuji. The Alpha who had protected her because he _wanted_  to- because he had felt that it was the right thing to do. He had said that she  _deserved_ better and she believed it in every fiber of her being. She wanted to throw her arms around him in thanks.

Suga pulled away from her shoulder and looked into her eyes, his face plastered with unrelenting pride. She beamed back in return, suddenly feeling... _lighter._


	23. Damage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo this chapter is super short, and has a little change in format that I hope y'all don't mind too much.
> 
> I'm headed out on vacation tomorrow, so the work will be on hiatus for a week or so (unless I'm feeling motivated and sober enough while I'm away).
> 
> I think this is an okay place to leave off for now.
> 
> Cheeeeeeers
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Twenty Three: Damage**

**Ukai~**

Ukai sat in the waiting room beside Miyo, unhappily sifting through the lists of injuries that the hospital was kind enough to provide. He had decided that he was going to take every speck of proof he had to the University administration-- he wanted the intruding Alphas expelled for their actions. It was the only recourse he had control over-- Alpha on Alpha violence rarely saw police intervention, even with Omegas involved in the violence. It was something he was growing very weary of, especially now, after the night's terrible events.

_Hospital Recourse Documents released to Keishin Ukai and Miyo Suzuki as deemed under article 341-2: University Insurance Information: subsection D-59._

**Tobio:** Broken blood vessels under the right eye, large abrasion to the skin on the left arm (prescribed antibiotic cream, must be monitored for potential skin graft), fractured left elbow, four stitches for laceration on forehead, concussion test came back negative.

 **Tsukishima:** Broken blood vessels under both eyes, four broken fingers on right hand (excluding thumb) set in splints (to remove in eight days), six stitches for laceration under chin.

 **Hajime:** Broken blood vessels under both eyes, one broken rib on right side, one misaligned rib on right side, eight stitches used on forehead laceration, concussion test came back negative.

 **Yuji:** Broken blood vessels under left eye, closed jaw fracture on left side (monitor and return in nine days for check up), concussion test came back negative.

 **Bokuto:**  Broken blood vessels under both eyes, broken nose (realigned, monitor for fourteen days, potential for sinus damage), broken index/ring fingers on right side (set in splints, to remove in eight days).

 **Daichi:**  Broken blood vessels under left eye, eleven stitches to laceration on left shoulder blade, extracted three shards of glass from lower back (must be monitored, potential for more).

 **Asahi:** Broken blood vessels under left eye, eight stitches to laceration on right collarbone (glass removed prior to stitches), removed seven shards of glass from lower back (must be monitored, potential for more).

 **Kuroo:** Broken blood vessels under right eye.

 **Tanaka:**  Broken blood vessels under right eye.

Ukai sighed and flipped through the results once more for good measure. Daichi and Asahi's stitches were a result of their  _own_  brawl, after they had smashed into the glass coffee table. Tanaka's facial injuries were from Yuji's sucker punches, and Kuroo's from his attempts to calm a feral Tsukishima.  _At least they were in the off season of volleyball,_  Ukai mused as he shook his head with indignation,  _the boys would practice through the injuries if they had matches-_ \- regardless of anything he said otherwise.

All of this unnecessary damage because a few overaggressive Alphas held warped perceptions of reality-- thinking that they had the right to do whatever they pleased when it came to Omegas... _disgusting_. Ukai flipped over the bunches of loose paper and shuffled them to the back of the folder. Then, he quickly leafed through the pictures on file, cringing away from a few of the worst ones. Tobio's abrasion, in particular, left him furious... _he reaaaally didn't want to look through the Omega injuries._

"Ukai?" A soft voice asked, drawing his attention back to the bright waiting room. He glanced over to Miyo sitting beside him. The raven Omega was filling out their University insurance information for the hospital, her brows furrowed in concentration. "It's bad, isn't it?"

Ukai's mouth set in a hard line. "They're not in as bad of shape as I thought. Blood has a funny way of making things look worse…" He trailed off with a sad laugh, unsure of what else he could say to lighten the mood. They shouldn't have been injured in the first place-- he was beginning to understand just how warped their society really was. "Tobio might need a skin graft, but they won't know until it starts healing. And I guess Bokuto could have some permanent sinus damage, but again, they just don't know right now."

"Oh my...I'm so sorry, Ukai," Miyo whispered, visibly upset yet unwilling her scent to show it. "Really..."

"Oh god, Miyo. Don't apologize. _None_ of this is your fault. The Omegas don't deserve a single bit of blame," he responded sternly, rubbing her gingerly on the back.

The action was forward of him, but he couldn't help himself-- Miyo had such a fragile figure. While he knew first hand just how strong she was, he still maintained a strange, innate desire to wrap her up in his arms and cheer her up.

"Well I, no, _we_ owe you. What you all have done for us-"

"It shouldn't be considered a big deal," he growled out, cutting her gratitude short. "It's fucking ridiculous that Alphas defending unmated Omegas is  _so_  rare that the action assumes a thanks."

When Miyo laughed at his frustrated remark, he subtly moved closer to inhale her rainy scent. She didn't seem to mind his hand on her back, found it pleasant, even. However, his friendship with her was becoming exhausting-- a change that he was all too keenly aware of. Recently, he found himself  _needing_  to inhale her natural fragrance more and more, yet, he fought against nausea each time he tried. Touching her, even an innocent brush up against her skin, was becoming increasingly difficult-- if not impossible.  He wasn't entirely certain of the cause, he never had these troubles before the last week. _Why now? Why was the change so sudden and gut wrenching?_ The more he desired to touch her, the harder it became. 

From the moment he had met the raven haired professor, three weeks earlier, he had known that she was already mated. He could smell that her fragrance was permanently ingrained with that of an unknown Alpha. However, as their relationship grew, through their lunch dates on campus and the occasional coffee in the evening, Ukai came to realize that Miyo was no longer _actively_ involved with the owner of the Alpha scent. While she was still  _technically_  mated, she and her mate had separated-- the unknown fragrance never renewed itself through scenting...or sexual activity. It merely lingered in the background like an irritating mosquito he really wanted to squash.

He hadn't been  _interested_  in the woman, at least, not from the start-- too turned off by her mated scent to even think of her in such a way. Yet, the past week a slow, predatory feeling crept forward from his instinctual mind. One that desired nothing more than to smell her natural fragrance on its own. _Unmated_. But each time her humid, earthy tones whirled into his nostrils, his unfounded desire to scent the woman was blown back by the unknown Alpha. It was something he had grown to despise with every ounce of his being.

 _Replace him._ Ukai visibly shuddered at the sudden, instinctual command and looked up at the ceiling to distract himself from his spiraling thoughts. Then, he briskly removed his hand from the small of Miyo's back as a wave of nausea curdled inside his gut. Suddenly, an unpleasant thought crossed his mind when he glanced down at the Omega files sitting plainly in his lap. _Had Miyo been hurt by her exmate?_  From what Ukai had witnessed with the kids residing in the yellow house, he already knew the answer.

"Well, I at least owe you lunch," the beautiful, raven haired women suggested, flicking his shoulder with her pen to snap him back to reality.

"I wouldn't say no to that," he replied, doing his best to suppress an instinctual, possessive growl. He subtly shuffled a few inches away from her, turned off by her now vigorous mated scent.

He sighed quietly and scratched at the top of his head in irritation.  _He just wanted to smell her...was it too much to ask?_

"It's a date then," Miyo declared softly before trailing off in thought, looking back down to the forms in her lap.

Ukai lost himself for a few moments, admiring her pink lips as she chewed at the end of her pen in concentration. _So what if he couldn't smell or touch, but he could still look, right?_   _A date,_ he mused as a small smirk snaked across his lips,  _maybe he could pull some wicked moves and get rid of the disgusting Alpha's scent for good._

Pulling his gaze, with great effort, from the raven Omega's pale features, he glanced down at the domineering file in his lap once more. Taking in a deep breath to ready himself, he shuffled through its contents and pulled out a thick bundle of marked papers.

_Omega injuries estimated to heal eight days faster than Alpha counterparts. Bear in mind that this estimation is based on results from seventeen test-groups in the Omega Institute of Health (OIH) research project #113. See aforementioned project for more information: archive number 0009113._

_Eight days faster?_ Ukai had no idea that Omegas healed faster than Alphas. Internally cursing, he added it to his rapidly growing list of Omega information.  _Why didn't Alpha schools teach this kind of stuff? He was a fully grown, adult Alpha, for christs sakes, he should've been aware of it._

 **Oikawa** : Broken blood vessels under right eye, twenty one stitches for laceration running up left side of face (must be monitored for infection), three broken ribs on left side, tests for concussion came back inconclusive (must be monitored).  _Heat pushed back an estimated three days to occur in seven._

_Heat pushed back an estimated three days-- what on earth did that mean?_

"Hey...Miyo…" He questioned, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Mmm?"

"It says here that Oikawa's heat was pushed back three days," he inquired, looking up from the paperwork to pinch the bridge of his nose. His head was pounding from a lingering migraine and Yuji's previous sucker punch to his jaw wasn't doing him any favors.

"Oh, yeah," she started in response, shuffling through her own pile of paperwork. "Our bodies will push back our heat cycles when we're injured. It's...some sort of chemical defense mechanism. Either to prevent us from being forcefully mated by Alphas or maybe….well...our heat is often damaging to our body because we're so out of our minds during it. I don't know, I guess it's possible that our body wants us to be _physically_ prepared before going through it. Honestly, nobody has figured out the answer yet," she rattled off in explanation without looking up from her forms.

_The woman could multitask..._

Ukai added the information, once again, to his mental pile and continued reading, against his best wishes.

 **Oikawa:**  Broken blood vessels under right eye, twenty-one stitches for laceration running up right side of face (must be monitored), two broken ribs on left side, tests for concussion came back inconclusive (must be monitored).  _Heat pushed back an estimated four days to occur in eight._

 **Keiji:** Broken blood vessels under left eye, five stitches for laceration under left eye.  _No discernible change in heat: fifteen days._

 **Yamaguchi:**  Skin abrasion on right forearm (prescribed antibiotic cream), hairline fracture on right wrist (casted, return in one week).  _Heat pushed back and estimated two days to occur in eleven._

 **Nishinoya:** Broken blood vessels under left eye, broken thumb on right hand (set in place, to remove in eight days).  _No discernible change in heat: seventeen days._

 **Shoyo:** Nine stitches for laceration on left side of forehead, tests for concussion came back negative. _No discernible change in heat: twenty-three days._

 **Yachi:**  Two broken ribs on left side, tests for concussion came back negative.  _Heat pushed back and estimated two days to occur in fourteen._

Ukai let out another heavy sigh as he reached into the folder to pull out the Omega photos. Shoyo's was the first in the pile, and he visibly winced at both size of the gash on the boy's forehead, and the deep color of the bruise. He quickly glazed over the remaining images, not wanting to analyze them more than he had to, until he reached Oikawa's-- nearly vomiting from the brutal sight. The laceration on the boy's slender face was purple and swollen, running from just under his eye all the way up to his hairline in an angry, twisted mess.

"Are you okay?" Miyo asked gently, placing a hand on his leg in support after smelling his upset.

While he was grateful for her touch, her mated scent burst forward once more, rotting the contents of his stomach in a twisted mess of bile.

"Yeah. Fuck. I'm fine," he growled back and shuffled in his seat, trying to keep his discomfort under control. The Alpha injuries were, on a general scale, worse than the Omegas, but he was used to seeing bloodied up Alphas--  _it was natural._

Miyo reached for the folder in his lap and pulled out Oikawa's set of photos. She briskly sifted through them, then tossed them back in the pile without a second thought.

"That laceration is going to scar. He's going to _hate_ that," she said at last with a timid laugh, once again returning her attention back to her large pile of paperwork.

Ukai was shocked by her laissez-faire attitude.  _Was she...completely desensitized to Omega injuries? Were they really this common?_

"It's the same thing with your Alphas…" The raven Omega said plainly without looking up. "You barely flinched at seeing their injuries. I barely flinch at seeing the Omega ones."

_Had she smelled his thoughts?_

"Yeah, but it's different…"

"You're right. We both should be flinching at all of the injuries. The violence was completely unnecessary."

Ukai laughed at her abrupt, honest comment--  _she was absolutely right._

"Okay. So...according to this," she continued, reading off the marked up page in front of her. "They're discharging Yachi in the next hour...and Yamaguchi's cast should be done soon."

Ukai piled up the papers in his lap and happily shoved them into the folder. "And Oikawa?"

"He hasn't woken up yet. I'll have to talk to the doctor."

"Okay, I'll drive Yachi and Yamaguchi home. Oh, I guess Keiji is still kicking around too. I'll bring him as well. You and Suga stay? I get the feeling you want to," he said, flashing the beautiful woman a cheeky grin to lighten the mood. She looked so very tired. It was nearly 10:00am and neither of them had slept a wink.

"That would be great, I have to finish the insurance paperwork, anyways. And I know Suga isn't going _anywhere_ without Oikawa," Miyo replied with her own, kind smile. "Make sure you tell that kid, Daichi, that Suga is safe. I could smell his panic the moment we sent him home without  _his_ Omega."

"Yeah, they're awfully close to mating…" Ukai agreed with a chuckle-- the two kids made a decent pairing.

"Maybe...don't tell Hajime the details on Oikawa either, okay?" Miyo added with a pained expression, the stress lines of her face pulling against her pale skin.

 _She was right. Hajime was barely keeping it together as it was_. They had to send the poor kid home with the other Alphas because his scent was devolving too readily with each passing hour.

When Bokuto had told Ukai about the Alpha's frantic state after Oikawa had been injured, he almost didn't believe it-- Hajime was well known for his intense regard over his instinctual composure.  _Breaking down, crying, and howling out in anguish?_ It was almost unbelievable. _Almost._  Ukai could tell that the boy had developed an intense bond with the chestnut haired Omega, beyond anything he had ever seen and, after today, he could certainly attest to the Hajime's control. The boy had lasted far longer than any normal Alpha would under the same circumstances, there was no need to push his limits any further with unnecessary information.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," he replied at last, nodding his head in agreement. "You'll call me the second you get an update?"

"Of course. We're a team, Ukai."


	24. Control and Reservations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lucky I had a loooooooong plane ride today! 
> 
> C-c-c-cheersssss
> 
> (Fixed Kabuto continuity errors).  
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Twenty Four: Control and Reservations**

**Keiji~**

Keiji could smell Bokuto’s anticipation from the very moment he stepped foot inside the yellow house. He rolled his eyes, accustomed to its overbearing intensity. His constant exposure to it, especially since the volleyball game, had seen to that.

Ignoring the owl’s scent, wafting over from the living room, he shuffled Yachi and Yamaguchi up the staircase ahead on him. With both Suga and Oikawa gone, he was the de facto matriarch of the residence.

Although Ukai had offered to accompany him inside, to help him charm the other house members into sleep, he had declined. It was evident that the coach wanted nothing more than to return to the hospital-- _well, to professor_ _Miyo_. Perhaps unbeknownst to him, Ukai had exuded a crisp scent during the entire car ride. One that was very eager to scent. _..and possibly even mate..._ the raven haired Omega. Keiji sighed and sent out a silent prayer that the coach knew what he was getting into. Miyo was mated, after all, and remating was tough. Sometimes impossible.

As Keiji entered the tea green room with his nestmates, Yamaguchi wasted no time-- piling down next to Shoyo’s sleeping form. Without a word, he briefly adjusted his blue cast, placing it gingerly over his stomach, then curled up next to the ginger and closed his eyes.

“Keiji…” Yachi asked quietly from beside him, squeezing his limp hand in her own.

“Mmm?”

“Is Oikawa going to be okay? Tell me the truth.”

Keiji sighed. He had been actively trying to avoid all thoughts of Oikawa. Nobody had given him any information, not even Suga.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine in no time, Yachi, don’t worry,” he replied softly, doing his best to smile, at least a bit, for her sake. “You need to get some sleep, though.”

“Okay…” The blonde Omega whispered as she tucked a strand of gold hair behind her ear, too exhausted to push the matter further. She released his hand and crawled over to the group, snuggling into Nishinoya’s relaxed shoulder. “You’ll tell me the second you hear anything, right?” She mumbled out from the blankets. Her doe-like eyes housed dark, heavy circles of exhaustion.

“Of course. I’ll wake you all up, I promise,” Keiji affirmed with a slight nod. At his assertion, the tiny girl’s eyes fluttered closed and her breathing slowed, drifting off to sleep.

Keiji wanted nothing more than to join his nest in their comfortable mess of blankets on the matted floor. He was so _very_ tired, however, he had much to do before he could rest his eyes. There was a pile of Alpha boys on the main floor, stewing in their frustrations-- they needed to be sternly put to bed.

After one last glance at his cozy nestmates, he shuffled out into the hallway and softly closed the door behind him. Inhaling deeply to steady his anticipation, he briskly pulled out his cell phone from its home, inside the back pocket of his dark jeans, and clicked on the back light.

_Nothing, not a single text about Oikawa. Not from Miyo, or Suga, or anyone. Nothing..._

He let out a puff of frustrated air, then shoved his device back in its confines and made his way towards the dark stairwell, ignoring the painful pulsing of the laceration across his cheek.

As he rounded the final set of steps and stepped onto the main floor, a multitude of Alpha scents snaked forward, clamoring for his attention.

 _Anger...fear...exhaustion...anxiety._  He quickly sifted through them, ordering them by level of intensity. Unsurprisingly, Hajime’s fragrance was the most aggravated. It coiled around the other scents with burning intensity-- like flames licking up into a clear sky. Angry and unopposed.

Filing Hajime’s fragrance away for a moment, he glanced out the front windows at Asahi, pacing on the veranda. Across from him, Daichi’s exhausted figure sat slumped on the porch swing. As their uninhibited scents whirled into Keiji’s nostrils, he clenched his teeth in irritation-- _he was absolutely sick of smelling Alphas._ Stepping into the morning light, Keiji relaxed his own fragrance and smirked, eager to put the giant in his place.

“Asahi,” he called out in a savage tone, stopping the bunned Alpha's pacing. “Nishinoya is fine, the hospital gave him the all clear, so reign your fucking emotions in. Stop getting bent out of shape, he needs to nest right now. It had nothing to do with you being a weak Alpha. It had nothing to do with you as a provider. Or a boyfriend. Or any other reason your mind has whipped up in desperation. He just needs a reset, only Omegas can do that, so _get over it_ and go to fucking bed.”

Asahi winced at the harsh words and cast his brown eyes down to his feet in shame. Through the tears in his bloody shirt, Keiji could see a line of stitches across his collarbone. While the raw, angry wound left him feeling sympathetic, its cause _was_ shameful. Asahi had lost control. Burdened the other housemates with his unchecked upset. Injured Daichi-- all without actually protecting Nishinoya. _He should feel ashamed_ , Keiji thought to himself as he gingerly rubbed his tender cheek, _not in that he was unable to protect the spitfire Omega, but in his overcompensating behavior after failing._

“Yeah...sorry. I'm sorry,” Asahi whispered under his breath, stirring up his frenzied, shameful scent once more. “I’m being selfish. You’re right...I need to pull it together…”

“Look,” Keiji interjected as the bunned Alpha sluggishly moved past him to enter the yellow house. “Don’t…be mad at yourself for fucking shit up with Noya, okay? It’s unreasonable…and cocky to think that you'll always be able to protect an Omega. You need to accept that, and not be so fucking hard on yourself,” he continued, running a hand through his dark locks in exasperation. “You went feral because you felt ashamed, so work on that shit. Cut yourself some slack for once.”

“Fuck,” Asahi grumbled, shuffling on his large feet. “I’m sorry, Keiji. I really fucking am. You’re right. I know you are. I'm just...frustrated.”

“It's fine. Just go to bed,” Keiji replied hotly, jerking a thumb towards the front door. “Daichi, you too. Go to bed for fucks sakes. You've done your fair share tonight, don’t you think?” He called down the porch, directing himself at the grumbling Alpha on the swing.

“What if--”

“I’ll handle it,” he retorted, snapping his irritated fragrance out into the crisp morning air around them. “I’m _so_ sick of smelling all this Alpha distress, and I’m not the only one, either. If the Omegas upstairs are going to get some much needed sleep, _all of you_ need to stop with these anxious, desperate scents. It’s unhelpful...you guys should know this by now.”

Daichi’s shoulders subtly flinched back at the harsh remark, then he let out a heavy sigh of resignation. Rising to his unsteady feet, he shuffled towards Keiji, doing his utmost to keep his tired eyes open.

“You’ll call me the second you hear something about Oikawa? The _second_. I mean it, Keiji…”

“Yeeeeessss,” Keiji drawled in reply, rolling his eyes once more.

 _At the rate things were going, he was going to have to wake the whole bloody house._ At that thought, he couldn't stop a small smile from skittering across his dry lips-- _everyone_ _was worried about Oikawa. Just as much as he was._

Daichi nodded, then dragged his feet towards the front door with Keiji following close behind. As the captain pulled his slumped body up the stairs, hints of his distressed scent coiled into Keiji’s nostrils.

 _Missing Suga._  Keiji stifled a chuckle against his sleeve, _the pair were disgusting...they had yet to realize they were absolutely made for each other._

“Tsukishima and Tobio have already gone to bed,” a familiar voice called out from the kitchen, drawing in his attention. “Haj is out back, probably could use some Omega wisdom, if ya know what I mean.”

Keiji followed the sound, peeking his head through the archway to the blue room. Tanaka flashed him a cheeky grin, then yanked at the back of Yuji’s bloody, orange shirt-- a fainthearted attempt to pull the blonde Alpha from his looting the fridge.

“Oi, Yuji! Stop raiding our house for food,” Tanaka whined, tugging his teammate back. “Go to bed! I’m tired of babysitting you, man! I neeeeed sleeeeeep, your sucker punches tuckered me right out.”

“There are two vacant rooms on the third floor,” Keiji asserted, eager to ally himself with Tanaka’s motives. “They’re across from the nest. You can sleep in one of them for now, until we figure some shit out.”  

“Across from the Omegas you say…” Yuji replied, poking his head out of the silver fridge to look at him with tired, chocolate eyes.

“Don’t be so creepy, man!” Tanaka quipped, slapping the blonde Alpha on the back with vigor. “We’d be better off putting someone like you in the basement.”

Keiji disregarded the chirp. Judging by Yuji’s _obnoxious_ scent, his motivations were defensive in nature-- he wanted to remain close so he could better protect the nest.

Keiji liked that...he was still rattled from the events and a little extra precaution never hurt anyone.

“Ew, Tanaka! C’mon man,” Yuji complained, jabbing his bald teammate playfully in the gut. “Cut me some slack. You’re making me seem like a pervert!”

“Go. To. Bed,” Keiji commanded at once, gnashing his teeth together as he shuffled the bickering pair towards the stairs. “Go to fucking bed so I can go to bed.”

“Yes, sir!” Tanaka snapped back, gracing him with a cheeky salute as he ascended the steps.  

 _Jesus christ. How do they still have energy? Especially Yuji...with a fractured jaw._ He had seen the physical damage on the third floor. There was no doubt in his mind that the blonde Alpha pushed himself to his limits against Chaki.

“Keiji…” An all-too-familiar voice called out quietly, luring his attention towards it.

Bokuto...slumped down in the red chair in the living room. _Why wasn't he sitting on the couch? The chair was horrendous, the most uncomfortable thing in existence. Dumb owl,_ he thought with a sly grin, no longer able to inwardly deny his attraction to the Alpha. _He was too entertaining._

“Bokuto, give me a second,” he drawled out as he passed by, following Hajime’s distressed scent towards the back deck. “Hajime takes priority. I'll be back in a bit.”  

He rolled his eyes at the owl's subtle growl of frustration and pushed forward to the back door. _Bokuto could wait his turn._

As he stepped out onto the wood panels of porch, damp from early morning condensation, his eyes raked over Hajime’s slouched form-- sitting on the edge of the back veranda with his feet hanging just above the grass.

_It isn't the wisest choice, waiting around for your injured Omega in the very location he was hurt. As if he hasn’t already punished himself enough for what happened..._

At that thought, Keiji’s gaze flickered over to the metal spout on his left. He internally winced at the splattered blood, smeared across the yellow siding. A mental image of Oikawa, his chestnut head colliding with the hard steel, flashed across his mind. He shoved it away with great force, finding his normally mild scent suddenly flush with anxiety. _Fuck_ , he thought as his eyes landed on the dark Alpha ahead of him once again.

_The poor guy actually saw it happen…_

“Hajime,” he called out, attempting to verbally pull the man from his upset-- _stewing in his own distressed scent was going to make him go mad._

“Yeah…?”

“Why the fuck would you sit out here,” Keiji asked, in more statement than question, sitting down beside the Alpha.

“I don’t know...I came out here to see if Kabuto was still passed out in the alley. But...he's not. He’s gone.”

“You should sleep.”

“No. I can't sleep. I’m waiting until I hear something.”

“Then put your phone volume on max so it’ll wake you up.”  

Hajime grew stiff, clenching and unclenching his fists in frustration. Unlike the other boys, Keiji was going to have to put in some work to get Oikawa’s Alpha into bed. _Of_ _course, he shouldn't have expected anything less from Oikawa's chosen partner. Stubborn Omega, stubborn Alpha._

“Look,” he started, tentatively rubbing Hajime’s back in small, relaxing circles. “If you don’t sleep, you’re just going to get worse. Every minute you force yourself to stay awake, your scent is going to devolve even further. You'll eventually lose all measure of control,” he explained, doing his best to actively ignore the Hajime’s combative fragrance. “Listen, I know you're good at controlling your instincts, but you've got a threshold, too. I mean, Hajime, man, by this point, a lot of Alphas would have been sedated, or at least knocked the fuck out, but you've managed your shit pretty well. You're better at it than most, so let's keep it that way. You need to rest or you're going to snap, and then you'll _really_ be a burden for everyone.”

“I don’t want to sleep in my room without him…” Hajime growled after a few moments of silence, looking to Keiji with a pained, emotional expression. “It still smells like him. What if it never does again…”

“He’s going to be fine,” Keiji retorted, karate chopping the dark Alpha across the back. “Don’t think like that. Ukai told us both that the doctors were just waiting for him to wake up on his own. His body will heal faster if they don't push it, ya know?” He continued, shoving out his calming scent as much as he possibly could in his exhausted state.

“What if they’re wrong,” Hajime snarled, his back muscles tensing under Keiji’s gentle hand. “There...there was so much blood, Keiji. Fuck...I heard...I heard the crunch…”

While Keiji had not been formally given a clear answer on Oikawa’s well-being, his thoughts on the matter were not nearly as twisted as Hajime’s were. The Alpha was not thinking clearly. His logical mind was hindered by his exhaustion, what he had witnessed, and by the separation from _his_ Omega. Keiji needed to do something to pull him back to a more lucid reality-- before Hajime did something that was actually _worthy_ of regret.

“I’m going to tell you something,” he said softly after a moment of silent contemplation. It really wasn’t his story to tell, but it would remind Hajime of just how strong his Omega was. “Oikawa and I met under pretty shitty circumstances. He was kind of the one who intervened on my behalf, against Jime.”

“What?” Hajime barked out at once, releasing a large outburst of protection that swirled into the air like an intense tornado.  

Keiji’s heart swelled as the sudden fragrance that blanketed him in a comfortable embrace. _Hajime really cared for the flock...no...cared about the pack._

“I was the first of the flock to meet Oikawa,” he began, releasing a small sigh of renewed anxiety-- he hated discussing the event. “If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that he didn't really tell you much about his past. It's kind of a black mark on his record that he'd rather erase. But now...with all the shit Kabuto and Chaki were--”

“So what if he was a drug addict, or a prostitute. I don't fucking _care._  I don't _care_ about any of that shit. If that's...if that’s what he fucking thinks…”

 _Okay_ , Keiji mused, increasing his tranquil scent at the Alpha’s upset words. _He could only deal with so much. The two lovebirds were going to have to sort out their past indiscretions on their own time._

“Yes. When I met him, he _was_ a drug addict. It was _...Jesus..._ almost three years ago now!” Keiji said, rubbing his forehead in disbelief. “It was my first year here, on campus. I had just moved out of my Aunt’s and into an Omega shelter--”

“Why were you living in a shelter?” Hajime snarled, his protective scent creeping forward again.

 _Man_ , Keiji pondered with a sly smirk, _Alphas really were oblivious to Omegas. In almost every aspect._ From living conditions to physical characteristics. At least the yellow house Alphas wanted to reconcile their lack of knowledge. _They wanted to learn...they wanted to be better._

**Hajime~**

“It's not uncommon, Hajime,” the icy Omega replied with a small chuckle. “If we aren’t a member in a flock, we can’t apply to live on campus. And it ain't easy forming a flock, or joining one. The majority of Omegas...well...the moment they turn eighteen, they spend all of their energy searching for a mate. I mean, it's sort of the best way to ensure your own safety. We can't exactly rely on the government, ya know?” He finished his train of thought with a reserved, yet hearty laugh.

 _Can't rely on the government...yeah...sure as shit Omegas couldn’t. Actually,_ Hajime thought, furrowing his dark brows, _he couldn't either. None of the housemates...none of the pack could. They were on their own._

“Why can't you live on campus...without a flock?” He asked with a heavy sigh, glancing down at the dewy grass under his swinging feet.

“Well,” Keiji started, searching for the best way to explain.

Hajime had come to appreciate the Omega's logical and reserved personality. Contrary to his initial impression, the icy boy had proven himself to be both understanding and courteous of his Alpha housemates-- especially when it came to their lack of knowledge on Omega affairs.

“University protocol states that Omegas can only live in campus buildings if they are applying in a flock of _at least_ seven members. Which...is a _fucking_ hard rule to manage. I mean, there are only a few Omegas ballsy and resourceful enough to apply at Alpha Universities in the first place! How the fuck am I supposed to suddenly present them with such a massive flock? It’s a ridiculous rule. It’s like the administration believes Omegas just frolic around in nests of our choosing. They are totally oblivious... _no..._ they're fucking uncaring. That's what it is,” Keiji asserted, his narrow shoulders rising and falling as he panted out his anger.  

Hajime had listened intently to every word, absorbing the information like a sponge to water. He was heartbroken, agitated, and even confused with the hard truths he had been presented with-- but he was more motivated than ever to do something, _anything_ , about them.

“So I guess, to circle back to your question. Living in the city on our own isn’t cheap and forming such a massive flock is nearly impossible,” Keiji chimed in once more, chuckling at the ridiculous situation he was describing. “So, we live out of shelters. I mean, at least _those_ are in ample supply.”

A empathetic growl rumbled inside Hajime’s throat. _The University went above and beyond to place Alphas in residences, yet they ignored, and even hindered, their weaker counterparts?_ The entire ordeal was twisted around _...it was backwards._ They should be aiding the disenfranchised, not holding them back with defunct rules. _At least seven members to apply for campus housing?_ _No wonder the Omega Residency District was so run down...most of the houses were probably vacant._

“All this shit just goes to show how fucked the Omega Inclusion Initiative really is…” He whispered, more to himself than to the Omega seated next to him. “It’s just a front...a public relations move…”  

“Yeah, well. The government may have forced the Universities to include us, but after that, they washed their hands of it all. Universities are deemed as _responsible_ _organizations_ , so they were able to retain the rights to set specific policies on their campus'...both Alpha and Omega ones.”

“The government should be the one-"

“On that, I actually disagree, as surprising as that sounds. I think the freedom that the Universities have been granted will come around to bite the government in the ass. Someday it will, mark my words.”

“Oh?” Hajime questioned, his curiosity fully piqued on Keiji’s intelligent argument. _The kid had a foul mouth when he was tired, but he still knew his shit._

“Change always starts in places of education. I mean, look at professor Miyo, or Ukai, or even you Alphas in general! It’s going to be the start of something...some sort of change. I _know_ it.”

Hajime had felt a desire to change the system. It had grown stronger with each piece of new information he had been given by his Omegas housemates. However, he was never certain of where exactly to begin. Finally, Keiji’s mention of coach Ukai gave him a place to start. After everything that had happened since the joining of their pack-- Eiko and her struggling flock, their battered, University provided home, the constant Alpha attacks, growing progressively worse-- it all helped to shed a raw, brutal light on a shadowy portion of society he had never acknowledged. _Never even thought to acknowledge._

He inwardly cursed-- angry with himself for being so blind, _so ignorant._ In the past, he had taken advantage of Omegas with uncaring brutality and he was terrified that Oikawa would find out. The chestnut boy would never accept his promiscuous, elitist past-- he wanted nothing to do with the stereotypical, Alpha perception of ownership.   

“Let me get back to my story. I can smell you getting tense about Oikawa again,” Keiji said gently, scratching Hajime’s back through the cotton of his shirt. “So, he and I didnt know each other my first semester. We never even crossed paths. Then, this one day, I think it was early fall…” He trailed off, blue eyes darting about as he mentally searched for the date. “Whatever, I think it was the fall. Anyways, one of my lectures ran late and a couple of the Alphas in my class stuck around, too. You know, to follow me to the bus stop and jump me. I mean, I knew that they had been eyeing me for most of the semester, but I did pretty well to ignore them. I should have been more careful. I wasn’t thinking th--"  

“Fuckers,” Hajime abruptly snarled, already frustrated with the story. He could see where the tale was going and he didnt like it. “The fuckers attacked _you._   _Your_ behavior is not the problem. Should have been more careful? Fuck that. _Them,_   _they_ are the _problem._ ”

“Yeah…thanks. I appreciate that,” Keiji softly replied with a quiet chuckle. “Long story short, they corned me behind one of the brick buildings...I think it was Biological Sciences. They knocked me out pretty good, too, cause there's a huge gap in my memory. But when I came to, I was in their fucking dirty house,” he trailed off, biting his lip to control his upset. “You know...no matter how hard I fought against them, and believe me, I did, they were fucking stronger. My willpower didn't mean shit. They overpowered me in a heartbeat, and that was that. It makes my stomach curdle just thinking about it…” He teetered off, sitting back on his tail bone with his hands folded in his lap, gazing out at the overcast yard.

Hajime wanted to say something, _anything_ , to comfort the icy Omega-- but he had never been good with words. _Just be appreciative that he’s sharing such a personal story...show him that you’re thankful for his trust. Be silent, for now._

“One of them was _Jime_ …” Keiji interrupted the tense silence, spitting out the last word with utter contempt. “I was so... _scared._  I hate admitting it, but I was. I knew what they were going to do, but I wasn't at all prepared to deal with it,” he said knowingly. His blue gaze still zoned out on the yard. “I had never been sexually assaulted before then. Which is pretty well par for the course until you get kicked out into the real, unprotected world at eighteen. I mean...I grew up in an Omega orphana--”

“What happened to your parents?” Hajime interjected, unable to keep his curiosity at bay-- _was that common, too?_ “Sorry. I don’t mean to pry. I'm just-”

“It’s okay,” Keiji cut him short, waving a delicate hand. “No need to apologize. I don’t exactly know why they abandoned me. If I were to hazard a guess, it was probably because they wanted an Alpha kid. So the second I hit the early stages of puberty,  I was out the door and on my ass! It’s pretty common. Yamaguchi grew up in one too,” he finished with a small shrug, brushing a stray ant from his jeans.

 _Oh._  Nausea snaked its way up Hajime’s gut, provoked by the icy Omega’s emotionless tone. He ground his knuckles into the wooden panels of the porch, wanting to bash through them with his fists. _Abandoning your child? A child you had raised for ten years?  It was atrocious. Vile, even. Inhumane_. _If he had presented as an Omega, would his parents have abandoned him, too?_

“Anyways,” the icy boy continued, clearing his throat to resume his story. “I was pretty dazed for the rest of it, so don’t recall everything clearly. I do remember the smell of the house. It was awful, like this sort of violent, sexually twisted scent,” he explained and Hajime’s toes curled up in disgust. “The place was an absolute mess, too. I mean _really_ , _really_ filthy, but suddenly, I smelled an Omega through the chaos of it all. It was Oikawa. He was across the room, on his knees in front of some guy…” He faltered, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, I got lost in the story there. The details aren't really necessary…”

Hajime balled up his fists and his back stiffened, throat rumbling in a continuous loop of possession. AN ALPHA _. Touching HIS Omega. Never again. NEVER again._

“I know, I know, just let me finish okay? It has a good ending,” Keiji reassured, tugging on the back of Hajime's shirt to prevent his subconscious move to stand. “Just bear with me, okay?“

Hajime gave the Omega a stiff nod, forcing himself to unwind by inhaling the calm, metallic scent he provided.

“Jime didn’t even take me upstairs. He just dropped me down on the floor in the entryway and started tearing at my clothes,” Keiji rattled off in explanation, telling Hajime information that was doing well to drive him mad. “I tuned out for most of the... _assault..._ but then Jime just _flew_ off of me. I mean, how could I forget something like that, right?” It was so fucking abrupt! He just suddenly flew across the room! Anyways, Oikawa was standing over me…in this like...intoxicated daze. I was so out of it by that point that I didn’t even try to run away. He had given me the perfect opening and I just stayed there, on the fucking floor, useless.”

Hajime shuffled closer to the icy boy and pulled him into a half-embrace. He disliked smelling Keiji’s distress. It was mild, like his normal scent, but it had a sharp bite to it that left Hajime agitated-- as if a piece of shrapnel was caught inside his intestines.

He was honored to have been granted access to such a personal story. Unleashing his protective fragrance in its entirety, he hoped Keiji wouldn't mind. He didnt mean it as a display of ownership, he just felt an intense needto safeguard the Omega from his upset feelings. Perhaps, the protective fragrance would wash over Keiji and help put his mind at ease.

“Thanks…” Keiji whispered, relaxing into his cradling arm. “Anyways, when I didn’t move, Oikawa hauled me to my feet and wrapped a _blanket_ around me!” He paused, laughing at the ridiculousness of his recollection. “I don’t even know where he got it from! But, yeah. Then we started running. I remember hearing the Alphas hollering at us from behind, but they never caught up. The fuckers must have chased us for, god, I don’t even know how long. It felt like forever, but Oikawa just kept pulling me along behind him. When I got too tired to fucking run, he flung me over his shoulder like some sooorrrrrt of big shot. The idiot.”  

Hajime smiled under his breath at Keiji’s familiar chirp. He knew the two nestmates were close and their constant bickering was their own way of showing it. Hearing the story, imagining Oikawa protecting Keiji, acting out against the Alphas who had harmed them-- it made Hajime’s heart flutter with heavy emotion. _He loved his Omega’s courage...his resolve to fight...those things made him unique._

“I mean...we were pretty much naked running through the University!” Keiji cried out, throwing his delicate arms into the air. “When we finally lost them, which I pretty much chalk up to luck, by the way. They were too fucked out of their minds on drugs to keep up. Anyways, Oikawa parked us in this deserted alley somewhere off campus. Neither of us had our phones, so we couldn’t call the Omega Distress Hotline or anyone to help. So we just nestled together on the pavement underneath that _stupid fucking_ blanket. I don’t think either of us slept a wink. I know Oikawa didn’t because I remember feeling him fidgeting around...scratching himself. A few hours later, just before it was light out, we walked all the way to the shelter...sharing the blanket as cover. I remember thinking, _I need to take this boy to Sugawara. He’ll know what to do._ _Suga will take care of him for sure._ ”

“You knew Suga at the time?” Hajime asked, suddenly aware that he knew very little or the flock’s past. He internally chastised himself for not asking about it sooner.

“Yeah, he and I met at the shelter. We both bussed to school together, but we didn’t know the rest of the kiddies, yet. Hence us still living off campus,” Keiji explained, flashing him a sweet smile. “Okay, wait, so there’s a weird coincidence I have to tell you about,” he hurried to add as he adjusted himself under Hajime’s chiseled arm. “So, I guess that day, when I brought Oikawa to see Suga? Professor Miyo was visiting. She was dropping in on shelters, trying to gather together Omega students to, you know, push them into flocks so they could live on campus, ya know?”

“That's fucking smart,” Hajime whispered, more to himself than to Keiji.

“Oh you don’t don’t know the half of it. To be a professor at an Alpha University, as an Omega, she would've had to work her fucking _ass_ off. And also be one cunning mother fucker,” Keiji stated matter-of-factly, tapping his nose with his forefinger. “So, that's how we met the rest of the group. Through her. The moment I walked in the doors of the shelter with Oikawa, she took one look at our bloodied up bodies and went absolutely  _berserk_. I mean _really..._ yelling about...barking orders to the shelter attendants...wrapping us up in blankets...”

Hajime imagined the beautiful Omega doing just that. She was strong willed, so much so that he couldn't imagine going toe-to-toe with her-- physically _or_ verbally. She was frightening, in a ominous, paralyze you with her scent, sort of way.

He shivered. _Whoever she was mated with definitely had a set of steel balls. Platinum ones, even._

“She signed all this paperwork to bring Oikawa into the shelter. Then sat with Suga and I for _a week_ while he went through this terrible withdrawal. And I do mean _terrible. H_ ave you ever seen someone go through drug withdrawal? It’s a nightmare, but Miyo didn’t leave. Not once. She stayed by our sides and even signed off for me and Suga to skip class,” Keiji paused, smiling faintly at the vivid memory for a moment before continuing. “So, the three of us nested with Oikawa every night, trying to ease his pain and get him through it. By the end of it all...we had just...sort of...formed a bond,” he finished, trailing off with a deep sigh that relaxed his small shoulders back to their proper posture.    

Hajime could tell that the boy was relieved to be finished with his recount of the event-- reliving past trauma was not something people enjoyed, no matter their gender or secondary sex. Yet, from Hajime’s perspective, Omegas seemed to be far better equipped at handling emotional pressures than their Alpha counterparts. They had, at least, from what he had witnessed, an uncanny ability to pull themselves together after tragic experiences-- _experiences that Alphas had instigated against them._

As he sat recounting Keiji’s story, particularly the parts about Oikawa, he suddenly realized that his gnawing primal instincts had quieted to a dull murmur. He glanced over to the icy Omega next to him, still absentmindedly scratching his back, and the pair maintained their comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“My point is,” Keiji said at last, rolling his head back to gaze up at the grey sky. “If Oikawa wasn’t there, if he wasn’t as strong or as noble, I don’t think I would still be alive. And I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here with you, today. Believe me, Hajime, he’s going to be _fine_. He’s a fighter. A fucking stubborn boy. He would never fold so easily,” he finished in a resolute tone, believing every bit of his own declaration.

 _He’s a fighter. Stubborn. He would not fold so easily._ The honest words comforted the deepest recesses of Hajime’s soul. He inhaled a fresh breath of air then exhaled slowly, suddenly feeling exhausted. Gingerly pulling back from his half-embrace over Keiji’s slim shoulders, he lowered his back against the damp porch and closed his eyes.

“You’re going to nap out here?” He heard Keiji ask in a condescending, yet humorous, tone.

He nodded, knowing he still wouldn't be able to sleep in his own room-- not with Oikawa’s natural fragrance lingering on his sheets. Plus, he wanted to remain vigilant, ensure that no new Alphas attacked while the pack was weak. _He definitely needed to have a chat with Daichi, after everything that had happened, they needed to beef up their security._

“Well, I guess I can’t complain. At least you’ll be resting,” Keiji drawled as his soft footsteps moved away from Hajime, towards the back door.

“Hey...Keiji…?”

“Mmm?”

“I’m...honored that you told me all that stuff. I know it's not easy, but thanks. It really helped…” He divulged in almost a whisper. His body was wracked with so much exhaustion that it had started to rock back and forth, subconciously trying to lull him into sleep.

“No problem. Talking about it helped me out, too.”

Hajime barely heard the response. He was already drifting off into a light, yet restful slumber.


	25. Silver and Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We gettin' into a fluffy smut fest now guysssss
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Twenty Five: Silver and Blue**

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto sat back in the red chair, sensing the fragrances that Keiji was exuding from the backyard. Some, like his calm metallic scent, were glorious to inhale, while others, such as his anxious frustration, left Bokuto in fleeting states of sheer panic. When at long last the icy Omega’s scent wafted towards the house, mild and exhausted, Bokuto snapped forward on the chair cushions to glance at the back door. He _needed_ to talk Keiji. He had no choice... _not after everything that had happened._

He watched as the icy Omega shuffled across the oak floorboards, then plopped himself down on the blue couch-- resting his head against the a green blanket draped over the back. The cut underneath his eye came into Bokuto’s line of sight, illuminated by the grey light of the front windows. The abrasion was irritated and the pale skin surrounding it had turned into a deep purple. It looked much worse than when he had last seen it at the hospital. He physically cringed away, immensely unhappy that the boy had been injured on his watch.

_What kind of Alpha was he if he couldn’t even manage to protect a single Omega...his Omega._

“So…” Keiji said quietly, resting his head further back to look up at the white ceiling.

“How’s your eye?” Bokuto interjected in question as he ground his teeth together to qualm his self-hatred.

“It’s fine. It’ll heal. It’s not your fault, so get over it already,” the icy boy stated plainly. His cobalt eyes had fluttered closed, but Bokuto could tell by scent that he was still keenly alert.

“It’s my fau--”

“Shut up. It’s not your fault,” Keiji snapped, rolling his head towards him to eye him down with cold, tired eyes. “If you keep bringing it up, I’m going to lose my fucking mind. Drop it.”

Bokuto visibly winced from the sudden rush of Keiji’s aggravated scent. While his broken nose certainly lessened the intensity, it was not nearly enough to block it out entirely. He forced himself to relax and released his internal frustration, as per the Omega’s sharp orders. However, he was not about to forget his rage. He was going to use it as fuel to protect the icy boy at all times from then onward.

“I’m sorry…” Keiji resigned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m just _really_ tired. I'm not purposely laying into you. I swear."

Bokuto shrugged, then shifted in the red chair to catch the pale Omega’s gaze. He smirked-- doing his best to indicate that there was no harm done.

“No, you’re right. I need to let it go,” he agreed before rising to his feet to move over to the blue couch. “But, I kinda wanted to talk to you about something. I think it’s...important?” He faltered, pleased with his decision to switch spots.

_Much better. The red chair was so uncomfortable. So that's why nobody ever sits in it…_

“I bet I can guess what you want to say,” Keiji drawled, smirking up at ceiling in such a candid manner that Bokuto’s heart fluttered to life.

He leaned in and flicked the icy Omega on the temple, happy that the laceration was no longer visible from his new position. “Shut up. Let _me_ say it. You Omegas and your stupid mind reading,” he growled playfully, pleased with the cheerful tone of their chat. The last twenty four hours had been a nightmare of pensive, melancholy conversations.

“Fine, fineeeeee,” Keiji droned, lifting his head to scratch into his black hair from behind. "You have the floor."

“Well...uh…” Bokuto began, looking down at his hands in his lap. “After everything that happened yesterday...no...even before that. Well...what I mean to say is...what I want to say...I was wondering if you would let me court you!” He stuttered out, ending his choppy train of thought in an explosion of anxiety. He felt like he had just run an emotional marathon

Keiji burst out laughing, keeled over into his own lap in a quivering mess of hiccups. Bokuto couldn’t stop from pouting at the Omega’s response... _so cruel._

“Sorry, sorry!” The icy boy cried, wiping a tear of laughter from under his damaged eye. "But court me? _Seriously?_ Who says that? How old are ye?”

“Fuck you, okay. I just poured my heart out to you and-"

“Oh hardly! All you said was that you wanted to court-” Keiji faltered, devolving into another fit of snickers. "I can't even say it!"

“ _Date_ you, then. Jesus christ. Would you stop laughing?!” Bokuto growled, pushing the slender boy over into the couch pillows.

When the laughter continued in full, he abruptly shifted his weight, pinning the coy Omega beneath him. The humorous atmosphere slowly diffused and Keiji glanced up at him with gunmetal blue eyes. Bokuto lightly inhaled the concentrated air around them and butterflies shot through his stomach at the subtle hints of metallic arousal twirling around the air. His cock stiffened against his light jeans and a deep, throaty growl escaped his lips.

Keiji was acting overly liberal with his scent...not even caring to reign it in. _Was it because he was too exhausted to manage it? Or was it because he wanted it to be smelled…_

He reached down to gingerly sweep a black hair from the boy’s slender face, doing his best to ignore the damaged cheek.

“I don’t mind,” Keiji whispered up at him, blasting him with another overture of arousal.

Their faces were closing the distance between them and it was taking everything Bokuto had to keep his Alpha instincts at bay-- locked away in the back of his mind.

“Don’t mind what?” He growled, unwittingly allowing his scent to sexually charge the air.

Keiji’s metallic fragrance replied, unhinging itself to burst forth in an unapologetic slew of desire. Bokuto was nearly knocked back off of the couch by its intensity. Suddenly, smelling the icy Omega was no longer enough for him-- no matter how deeply he inhaled, he still _wanted_ more. _Needed more. Much more._

“Dating you. I wouldn't mind it…” Keiji whispered in reply as he raked his eyes down the lines of Bokuto’s angular, bruised face.

When his icy gaze landed on his lips, Bokuto could no longer hold himself back-- he was too exhausted to even try. He leaned down against the Omega’s narrow chest and trailed their lips together, then kissed him fiercely. Keiji momentarily hesitated against him, but returned the gesture in full, grasping into the silver hair behind his head with fervor.

Bokuto pushed his tongue further, playfully licking inside the Keiji’s wet mouth. He actively ignored the sharp pain in his nose as it pushed his face deeper. _He wanted to be closer. He needed to be closer. Needed to consume the cold, metallic scent...or he was going to die._

“Oh shit,” he abruptly growled after a few minutes of unchecked pleasure, jerking away from the slender boy-- panting underneath his muscular chest with foggy, aroused eyes.

“What...?” Keiji whispered, wiping the glistening spit from his pink lips with the back of his hand.

“I…” Bokuto started and sat back on the Omega's narrow hips, careful to not put his full weight down. He needed to get some distance between them or he was going to lose himself completely. “I...uh…we can’t continue. Yeah...we can't continue.”

“Why not?” Keiji asked with a subtle smirk, sensually biting his swollen lip. "Is there a _problem?"_

Bokuto ignored another hot pulse from his cock at the innocently sexual gesture. _He wanted to show the Omega what real biting looked like..._

He wanted to lay his claim, mark Keiji with his own scent and embed it into his soft skin with his teeth.

“I’m too tired to keep myself under control,” he grumbled, closing his eyes to massage his temples and shut out his racing thoughts.  

His instinctual mind was devolving face, leaving behind nothing but basic, primal thoughts. _Claim him. Mine. My Omega._ He shuddered, then frantically shook his head to blow away the provoking messages.

 _Visualize...dinosaurs...yeah...that’ll do the trick! Dinosaurs roaming around in a field. Eating...grass...trees...branches...sticks...other...uh...dinosaurs..._  

“Fair enough,” he heard Keiji reply in his typical, matter-of-fact tone. “We’re both too injured to fuck right now, anyways.”

Bokuto's yellow eyes shot open and his arousal flooded back at full force, pooling in his aching nether region. _What the fuck did he just say?_

“Yes, Bokuto. I _want_ to sleep with you,” the icy boy asserted with a classic eye roll-- as if he had read Bokuto's internal thoughts.

“Okay, what is up with you guys doing that?!” Bokuto exclaimed. He was growing tired of the Omegas just plucking the thoughts from his brain-- like taking candy from a baby.

“What? What’s up with what...?”

“Knowing what I'm thinking...you guys do it _all_ the time. It’s driving me _insane_. You guys can't read minds, right? I feel like they would've taught us _that_ in school, at the very least.”

Keiji laughed and lazily propped up his head with his arms. “No, but I guess we do something similar. I don’t know. We're just really good at putting an emotional scent to a specific thought based on...the context of the situation? It’s not like we can actually read your mind or anything.”

Bokuto huffed out a sigh of relief. He didn’t want _anyone_ hearing the shit he was thinking.. _.especially right now._ Having Keiji’s small hips pinned beneath him, freely inhaling the subtle hints of his innate desire left Bokuto imaging some pretty nasty things.

“I want to go back to what you said before,” he growled huskily, leaning onto the small figure beneath him once more. Placing his bruised forearms over Keiji’s head, he held his lips mere inches away from the Omega's own.

“About us fucking?” Keiji whispered. His hot breath enticingly sweet-- metallic and lustful.

“Yeah…” Bokuto replied with a throaty rumble, brushing the boy’s soft lips.

This time, he knew to slow things down-- he needed to retain his self-control. When Keiji moved forward to return the full kiss, Bokuto pulled back, just out of reach, and gently held the boy back with a gentle hand around his neck.

“I don’t want to fuck yet...not today...” He whispered, sliding his tongue over the edge of the Omega’s ear, receiving a quiet whimper in response.

“Then stop doing...that...” Keiji panted out, but trailed off as Bokuto sucked at the soft skin along his scent glands.

It took everything Bokuto had, every ounce of internal strength he maintained, to not bite down on the fragrant spot. Keiji’s aroused scent had become so pronounced that it was consuming him-- blurring his thoughts together in a frosted mess of desire.  

“I want to scent you…” He growled, nipping along Keiji’s collarbones. “I don’t want you to smell like anyone else. No one else. Only _me_.”

Keiji groaned and pushed his hips upwards, rocking them against Bokuto’s aching cock. “There is...an...empty room upstairs...on the third floor…” He slurred out. His blue eyes were still vividly bright, but unfocused from innate lust.  

That was all Bokuto needed to hear. He pushed himself up with flexed biceps and gently pulled the icy boy up against his chest. The next instant, he was walking briskly towards the stairwell, unleashing wave after wave of sexual hunger into the air around them.

Keiji’s lithe body felt fragile in his arms. His self-assured personality always made him seem strong and capable, and he certainly was, but Bokuto couldn’t believe that someone so small had been able to throw off an Alpha.

_That someone so small was willing to throw themselves at an Alpha in the first place._

“It’s that one…” Keiji nodded in a hushed tone as they rounded the third flight of steps, gesturing to an open door on the left.

Bokuto turned sideways, sliding their figures into the dark room, then gingerly shut the door behind him with his foot. He didn’t want to wake up the other Omegas who were nesting across the hallway-- they needed to regain their strength.

As he glanced around the small space, he softly plopped Keiji down on the floor in front of him. It was small, but comfortable. Plain white walls, slightly marked up from the previous inhabitants, and a queen sized bed with cream sheets and comforters. He gave a slight nod of approval, then yanked his dirty shirt over his head, careful to not brush his sore nose. Tossing the crumpled fabric on the black dress near the door, he turned on his heels and flinched back-- startled by Keiji’s stunned figure, staring into his soul with cobalt eyes.

“Oh...sorry...I just sort of assumed…” He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

_Had he made the situation uncomfortable? Had he fucked up already?_

“You’re so bruised...” Keiji whispered, putting Bokuto's spiraling thoughts to rest. He took a small step forward and reached out with delicate fingers to touch a damaged shoulder.

“I fell on it when that fucker bowled into me,” Bokuto snarled out with contempt before physically melting into Keiji’s careful touch.

_He didn't want to think about the intruding Alphas. Not right now. Not while the Omega he had been dreaming about for days was caressing his skin with gentle, slender fingers...drowning him in a cold sea of ice._

Keiji ran a hand up his bruised shoulder, then down his bicep, sending shivers of anticipation down to his toes. _More. More_. He subconsciously reached forward to the Omega’s grass stained shirt and gingerly pulled it up. The room was lacking in natural light, but there was just enough for him to admire the boy’s slender figure in the shadows. He felt his breath increase, flooding his body with instinctual adrenaline-- he wanted to touch the Keiji’s pale skin. Feel it rub up against his own. Wind him up so every inch of his body was sticky with pheromones and sweat.

When the Keiji reached down for the buttons of his jeans, he stiffened, stressed that they were taking things too fast.

“Your fingers are in splints…” The Omega answered his internal thoughts again as he unbuttoned the jeans with ease and pulled down the zipper.

Bokuto shimmied out of his constricting pants, leaving on his black briefs, then watched with renewed arousal as the icy Omega did the same. His lithe body shivered, reacting to the cool air of the room, and he quickly turned to crawl into the white bed.

“Are you coming?” Bokuto heard the sly Omega mumble out from the puffed up comforter.

 _He most certainly was_. He casually slid between the sheets, joining Keiji in the dark confines they provided. Underneath the bedding, the sensual, metallic fragrance was trapped-- plummeting his mind into a jumbled mess of sexualized thoughts. He moved to shuffle closer, stopping as an uncomfortable object jutted into his back.

“Oh!” Keiji whispered loudly, snatching his phone out from underneath Bokuto's back. The darkness under the covers lit up as he tapped the the device.

 _He's looking for an update,_  Bokuto surmised with a sudden pang of grief, _on Oikawa._

After a few moments, Keiji sighed and clicked off the device and shoved it under his pillow with a huff. “I’m waiting to hear from Suga about Oikawa. It's on full sound, so if I get a call, or a text, or _anything_ , it’ll wake me up.”

When the an upset scent began to sour the air, Bokuto pulled Keiji's small body against his own, cradling him against his broad chest.

“He’s going to be okay. He’s stronger than anyone I know…” Keiji whispered to reassure himself, relaxing into his solid form.

“Yeah. He’s tougher than any Alpha I’ve ever met,” Bokuto added truthfully, leaning forward to smell the Omega’s black hair.

“Mmm…yeah. He is.”

Without another word, Bokuto began to happily scent Keiji. He didn’t have the energy to lessen the heaviness of his throbbing cock. So, he sent out a silent prayer that the Omega didn't mind the feeling of it against the small of his back.

“This is nice…” Keiji whispered after a few silent minutes, gently rubbing his head against Bokuto’s scent glands.

 _It was nice. It was very nice._ It was unlike anything Bokuto had ever experienced. Daichi had been right, Omegas _were_  like a drug. _Well...Keiji was…his scent was absolutely intoxicating._ In fact, Bokuto was actually thankful for his clogged sinuses-- they were helping to keep his instincts under wraps.

Adjusting his arms underneath Keiji’s ribs, he slid his hands down to the boy’s narrow hips, happy to explore his soft body by touch. He caressed an undamaged hand down a hairless leg and back across Keiji’s bare chest, accidentally brushing up against the Omega's briefs as he did so. Keiji let out a soft whimper, then nestled his back into Bokuto’s chest, rolling his hips back in a sensual motion.

_Bokuto wanted to fuck him. Needed to. Had to._

“I'm sorry…” He growled into Keiji’s hair, clamping his eyes shut. He needed to calm himself down. He was going to fuck the boy, _he was going to_ , but not right now. Not until the stress of Oikawa’s absence was mitigated and his nose was better healed.

He steadied his mind, then wrapped his arms protectively around the Omega and inhaled the metallic smelling hair once more-- pleased to find that his own scent was beginning to set into the dark locks. After a few minutes of sheer bliss, he felt Keiji relax in his arms and his breathing slowed, indicating that he had fallen into a well-deserved sleep. Not long after, Bokuto succumbed to his own exhaustion, dreaming of ice.

 


	26. Virgin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, we can welcome back Oikawa now! 
> 
> Also, I am super bagged from flying so there are bound to be errors in this, as per usuallllll.
> 
> Thanks for reading/comments/kudos, guys! It’s pretty much the only reason I’m still motivated to upload.

**Chapter Twenty Five: Virgin**

**Oikawa~**

When Oikawa’s conscious fluttered awake, his entire being was consumed by an intense pain, radiating down from his brain. He felt like someone had clubbed with a baseball bat... _or a mallet._ After a few minutes of psyching himself up, he pushed through the jarring ache and opened his eyes. The brightness of the room shot into his skull, renewing the shrieking pain he had worked so hard to combat.

“Mr. Oikawa! I’m glad to see you awake!” A cheerful voice called out from a few feet away, the new scent alerting him that its owner was an Omega.

“The lights…” He croaked out, his voice raspy from disuse. He pricked up his ears at the ringing sound of a continuous beep-- _he was in a hospital...things must have gone pretty south if he had landed himself here._

“Oh! Let me get the blinds. Just a moment.”

He heard the woman shuffling about on his left, fighting against what he could only assume were curtains. He hated that he couldn’t see his surrounding. The blindness made him anxious and uncomfortable, more so than his throbbing head.

“Okay, all done. It should be better now.”

He nodded slightly at her words, then cautiously open his eyes, pleased to find that the pain in his head retained its manageable level of discomfort. He blinked through his blurry vision and slowly glanced around the unknown room. It was devoid of light, aside from a a small, green lamp sitting atop a counter with a sink. However, it’s mellow lighting was plenty enough to brighten his foreign surroundings.

 _Definitely in a hospital_ , he reaffirmed his previous assumption _, but the room was much nicer than most he had seen-- and he had ample experience with hospitals. Most Omegas_ _did._  

The walls of the room were painted in chocolate brown hues and a large television was mounted against the plaster ahead of him. He gaze flickered over hung paintings of flowers, decorating the warm room with their calming images.  

_They reminded him of Suga..._

Suddenly, a series of thoughts burst forward, vibrating his tense muscles with unchecked panic. _What had happened? Why was he in the hospital? Where was his flock? Was everyone okay? Was he the only one who had gotten hurt?_

“Oikawa, please try to relax,” the Omega nurse began, gingerly holding his shoulder to reassure him with her tranquil scent. “Do you know where you are?”

“Hospital,” Oikawa croaked again through cracked lips. _His throat was so dry...when was the last time he had water?_

“Do you remember what happened?”

 _What had happened? He was in the backyard and then...Kabuto._ His memory rushed back in a whirlwind of terror and his body flooded with nausea. _Hajime. Hajime had heard everything._

“I need...a bucket,” he groaned, bile coating his throat, mere seconds from spewing out. He leaned forward, hoisting himself over the side of the bed, and the nurse swiftly placed a silver trash can beneath him. Milliseconds later, he was violently retching into it, dry heaving the empty contents of his stomach.

“What's...happening…” He managed to ask in between retches, panting with clammy sweat.

“Your body is just acclimating. Be patient. It will stop soon,” the nurse cooed, rubbing his sweaty back in small circles to comfort him.

After what seemed like an eternity, the heaving stopped and he sat back, leaning into the pillows of the upright bed. _He was exhausted._

“I paged the doctor. She’ll be here in a few minutes,” the nurse asserted, handing him a paper cup of water. “Small sips, otherwise you’ll just throw it up again.”

Oikawa complied, sipping slowly, doing his absolute best to ignore his throbbing head. His dry vomiting had renewed the stabbing pain in his brain.

After a few minutes, the door across from him opened and a woman waltzed into the room. She was beautiful-- freckled face with curly maroon hair.

“Mr. Oikawa!” She sang sweetly, swiftly crossing the room to stand by his bed. “I’m so glad to see you back in the world of the living! I’m sure you have lots of questions, but I need to do a few quick tests first, okay? Just bear with me for a moment.”

Oikawa nodded and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He struggled to follow the pen in her hand as she methodically dragged it from side to side in front of his eyes. He struggled even more when she checked his pupils with her pen light. The flashing light nearly had him vomited all over again.

“Well, my dear, you definitely have a concussion,” the doctor said with unbent sympathy, dropping the flashlight in a pocket of her white coat. “There is good news, though. I’m almost certain that it will clear up in the next twenty four hours, perhaps thirty. You certainly heal fast, even for an Omega!” She declared, giving him a toothy smile. Oikawa liked how cheerful she was, it was doing well to brighten up his sour mood. “I'm going to talk with your professor quickly, then we’ll have a chat, alright?”

He nodded in understanding, happy to hear that he wasn't alone. At least his professor was nearby.

“Lydia, why don’t you go and get Oikawa’s friend?” He heard the doctor call to the nurse as she left the room.

 _Friend...he hoped it was Suga, or Keiji, or any of his nest really._ As long as it wasn't Hajime, he couldn't bear to see the Alpha right now. Not after everything that happened. He sat back into the soft bedding and pulled a small pillow into his lap, hugging it against his chest. He didn’t want to think about _his_ Alpha...Kabuto and Jime had spoken so many hard truths-- they had said things that Oikawa never wanted Hajime to know. _Not ever._

“O--Oikawa?” A soft voice tore him from his dark thoughts with its motherly tone. _Suga_.

He glanced over to the doorway and saw his silver friend, smiling sweetly back. His body began to shake and hot tears blurred his vision-- he was _so_ thankful for a familiar smell, for a familiar face that he trusted.

“Suga…” He managed back between soft sobs. “I’m so glad...you're...here.”

The silver Omega quickly closed the gap between them and gingerly climbed onto the bed. He nestled himself into the white covers, cradling Oikawa in his slender arms.

“Oh, Oikawa...I’m so happy you're awake, my love,” he sang sweetly, blanketing them with a scent of happy tranquility.

“Is everyone okay?” Oikawa whispered into the boy’s chest, banishing a fleeting image of Hajime from his fragile mind.

“Everyone is fine. Miyo sent them all home this morning. Hajime, too.”

Oikawa let out a sigh of relief, glad to hear that his Alpha was nowhere near. He didn't have the mental fortitude to face the boy, not yet. He needed time to form a game plan.

“What happened...to me?” He asked with a sniff, nestling deeper into the covers.  

“I don’t think…”

“Please tell me,” he sobbed into the silver Omega’s grey shirt, darkening it with his tears. “I need to know. Please tell me. You know I need to know.”

He knew that he was overwhelmed by his lacking information. Uncertainties had always frightened him, suffocating him with unwitting dread.

“Kabuto…” Suga whispered, stroking his chestnut hair with his nails. “He hit your face into the faucet for the garden hose…”

_Smashed his face...that fucker._

“Is it bad…?” Oikawa asked, somewhat hesitant to find out the answer. He wouldn't consider himself vain, but he did value his appearance.

Suga paused, sheepishly playing with the ends of hair. “Yeah...it's pretty bad. I'm...I'm sorry…”

Oikawa was grateful that his nestmate had the decency to be honest with him.. _.as expected from Suga._ The silver Omega understood him better than most-- knew that he was strong enough to handle the truth, no matter of vile it was.

He shuffled out of his friend’s warm embrace and rested his aching back against the headboard behind him.

“Let me see. Let me see how bad it is,” he stated plainly, his tone unwavering with resolve.

_He needed to know how bad it was. He needed to see what Kabuto had done._

“Are you sure?” Suga whispered quietly in question, fumbling with his phone in his hands.

“Yes. I need to see.”

Suga sighed, his mouth set in a hard line as he unlocked his phone and handed it over. Oikawa took a deep breath to steady himself and wiped away his stray tears. He was not prepared for the unflattering photos of his damaged face, but he did well to shrug it off. He hated being upset, it wasn't worth his time.

He furrowed his brows, analyzing the images as he furiously swiped through them. A long and nasty laceration ran down the left side of his face-- starting at his hairline then curving down under his bloodshot eye. Its entire length was plastered with stitches and the skin around it maintained a deep purple hue of bruising. He looked at the photos for a few more minutes, testing out different angles, doing well to desensitize himself to the injury. When he realized that the angry wound was not going to cleanly heal, he clicked off the phone and dropped it into his lap-- _it was going to scar._

“Well, at least the fucker missed my eye,” he said at last, his raspy voice returning.

“Lucky, lucky…” His silver friend whispered in empathetic agreement, granting him a small smile of support.

Oikawa bumped the silver boy with his shoulder, trying to change the pensive mood of the room. “Hey, aren't you the one who’s supposed to be cheering me up? Isn't that how this works~~”

Suga quietly chucked and playfully poked him back in the arm. “I don't know how you do it, Oikawa. You always keep calm and joke around. It blows my mind.”

Oikawa blushed at the honest compliment. He _was_ upset about his damaged face and the scar it was going to leave behind, but he was happy to be alive. _Happy that he would live to see another day._

“Hey!” He tried to chirp, but the word came out as a harsh croak. “Let’s send everyone a picture of us! You know, show them that I’m alllll good~~”

Suga blinked slowly, gazing at him with  large chocolate eyes, then burst forward, embracing him while crying with laughter.

“Suga, stop!” Oikawa whined, pawing at the boy’s overbearing love. “You're going to have a puffy face for the photo if you keep crying~”

“I don’t c--care!” Suga blubbered into his shoulder, dampening his hospital gown with tears. “Y-you’re m-my h-hero…”

Oikawa tsked him and opened the camera on the device in his hands.

“Suga get up, come one! I’m taking the photo~~”

The silver Omega wiped his eyes and leaned into the frame, against his shoulder. Oikawa held the phone in front of their figures and flashed his best toothy grin-- as much as he could do without hurting his swollen cheek. He took a few quick photos, then decided to add a cheesy peace sign for extra effect. _He needed to cheer his worried housemates up, after all._

“Oh my God!” He cried after a few moments of swiping through the photos. “Suga you're barely smiling in any of them~~”

The silver Omega snatched the phone from his hand and quickly swiped through the images, chuckling at the cheesiest ones.

“Yeah, but you look so great! I’m sending this one. Everyone is going to love it!”

Oikawa leaned over and watched Suga link the peace sign photo to Keiji, typing out a quick message to update the flock.

“Hey, when do you think I’ll be able to get out of this stuffy place?” Oikawa asked with a yawn, as Suga sent the text out to their snarky friend.

“I don’t know…” His silver friend replied and Oikawa furrowed his brows, suddenly realizing just how exhausted the boy looked.

“Suga, have you slept? Like at all?”

“Not really…” The silver boy replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

“Jesus christ...wait,” Oikawa paused, suddenly unsure of the date. “How long have I been out for?”

Suga glanced down at his watch and hummed. “Almost...a day. So not bad, right?”

“A day?!”

_That was a new record for him._

“Don’t mind, don’t mind,” his silver friend remarked, waving a hand in resignation. “I’m sure you’ll be discharged soon. We’ll know once the doctor gets back, right?”

_Oikawa certainly hoped so, he had a lot of shit to sort out._

**Keiji~**

Keiji was up in an instant, fumbling the buzzing phone with shaky hands. He sighed to steady himself, then tapped on Suga’s message-- praying silently to the universe for good news. Suddenly, a picture of Suga and Oikawa popped onto the bright screen. His chestnut friend was flashing the camera a cheeky peace sign. The laceration running up from his bloodshot eye looked horrendous, but Keiji didn't care. _Oikawa was smiling._ His shoulders began to quiver in sobs and he held to phone to his heart. Oikawa was smiling. He was okay. After a few moments of emotional relief, he glanced down at the photo once more and the device buzzed in his hands. Another text message.

_Keiji! He’s awake!! Send this photo around :D I’ll pass on some doctor updates soon. Love you xoxxx_

A sobbing laugh escaped his lips and he smiled down at the message, overwhelmingly relieved. There was no doubt in his mind that Oikawa was the king of handling tough shit. The entire house had been sick with worry and the stupid Omega beat them to the punch. He had cheered them up. It was supposed to be the opposite. What a selfless idiot...

Keiji clicked onto the text box and began furiously typing, still beaming with relief.

_Tell the idiot that he scared me half to death. And that he looks stupid in that picture._

_Also tell him that I love him...xoxo Sugar Momma, glad you're by his side. I'll pass the news around._

He couldn't help himself from chirping his chestnut nestmate, it was just their way. He thumbed over the picture once more, renewing his happy tears-- he loved it. Saving the image to his phone, he subsequently linked it to a mass message.

_Cheesy photo from our dumb friend. He's doing well...so everyone better go back to sleep after reading this. I'll send more news when I get it. They're just waiting to talk to the doctor._

_P.S GO BACK TO SLEEP._

He did a quick proof read, hit send, and pulled up the photo once more, attaching it to a private text for Hajime.

_Hajime, he's up. Can you believe the guy? Look at this photo. I told you so, He's already cheering us up...Shittykawa,_

_Suga says everything is good. They're just waiting to hear back from the doctor. I'll update ya as soon as I hear something...so go back to sleep or I'll march in there and wail on ya. Ya hear me?_

Satisfied with his relaying of the important information, he shoved his device under his pillow after ensuring that the sound was still on full.

“Keiji…” Bokuto stirred under the covers next to him, rubbing his yellow eyes. “What’s wrong,” he suddenly barked out, unnerved by Keiji’s tears.

“Check your phone,” Keiji replied with a sweet smile, rubbing his wet eyes with the back of his hand.

“Oh my GOD!” Bokuto exclaimed, bursting into a fit of laughter as he looked down at the photo. “I can't believe him! Who does that? Gets his face smashed in and acts like its nothing. So cool~~”

“He is cool…” Keiji sniffed and wiped his eyes again, this time opting for the white bed sheet.

“Awww, K-bear…” Bokuto chirped, pulling him into his lap. “You smell so happy!”

“I am. And don't call me K-bear. What is that even supposed to mean?” He snapped back, but found himself unable to banish his cheerful smile.

“It's a cute nickname! Normally you're so huffy like, _stop following me to school, Bokuto. Stop walking me home, Bokuto. Stop harassing me, Bokuto!”_ The owl quipped back with a cheeky grin that fluttered his beating heart.

“You just made yourself sound like a stalker,” he drawled back in a saucy tone, shaking his head in disappointment.

“It ain't stalking if you like the company! Which, I know for a fact that you do,” the Alpha remarked, bopping him playfully on the nose with an index finger.  

“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Who's to say?”

In one swift movement, Bokuto gripped  his narrow hips and tossed him down against the bed, ripping out the bed sheets as he did so. Then, the owl pushed down against his back, pinning him into the mattress with gentle weight. _What a horny devil_ , he thought with a sly smirk as Bokuto’s knot hardened against the small of his back. 

“Liar,” the Alpha snarled in his ear, the commanding, primal tone prompting him to leak an instinctual fragrance of arousal. “Such a liar.”

Bokuto trailed his tongue down Keiji’s exposed neck and nibbled across his shoulder blades, caressing the pale skin. The Alpha’s sexual scent oozed over him, stirring an innate desire deep inside him-- to arch his back and whimper in need. He had never felt anything like it before. It was an encapsulating sort of dominance that had him _wanting_ to be knotted. _Wanting to be claimed._ The strong fragrance enticed his own to sexually charge the air around them, and he gasped out as he was pushed further into the mattress, the Alpha’s hands digging into his slender hips with renewed fervor.

“Someone’s eager,” Bokuto rumbled into his ear, biting down playfully on the lobe as he hoisted his ass upwards. “This is how you present yourself. To me. Do it,” he snarled, abruptly releasing Keiji from his grasp.

Keiji gasped at the sudden absence of touch and dug his nails into the mattress ahead of him. He could feel the owl’s domineering energy, commanding him from behind, setting his body on fire with its charged intensity. He clamped his cobalt eyes shut, and hesitantly arched his back forward to present himself-- embarrassed by the act, yet _needing_ to be filled.

He heard a low, territorial growl of approval and a calloused hand grazed down his spine, swiftly pushing his grey briefs down to his ankles. As the cool air of the room washed over his newly exposed area, he stiffened, locking himself in place. He had _never_ allowed anyone to touch him, at least, not with his expressed consent. A few sluggish waves of panic set in, taking their time, but growing louder inside his skull with each passing moment.

“Keiji,” Bokuto growled, snapping him back to reality. He glanced over his shoulder at the foreboding Alpha, on his knees behind him. “Are you oka--"

“I'm fine, I promise,” he hurried to reply, banishing the dark thoughts to oblivion. _He liked Bokuto. He wanted this. Needed this._

The owl nodded in understanding, then flashed a sly smirk and slowly slid a large finger between his raised cheeks.

“Such a _slut_...” He growled in playful threat as Keiji whimpered out in lustful desire at his touch. Trailing his tongue along his icy scent glands, Bokuto nipped at the soft skin drawing forth spotted bruises from the suction. “Such a _slutty_ Omega…”

Keiji shuddered at the degrading comment. He certainly _felt_ like a slut, wanting nothing more than Bokuto’s hard cock inside the walls of his aching sex. Although it was a common insult that Alphas hurled forth at Omegas, hearing the words rumble out from Bokuto’s throat made him feel... _different_ . He knew the owl respected him, so here, in this setting, he didn’t mind the degrading language. In fact... _he didn’t mind the idea of being owned at all--_ a conclusion that greatly startled him. He, like Suga and Oikawa, detested the idea of subservient to an Alpha mate. He thought that he always would detest it.  

“Only for you…” He whispered into Bokuto’s exposed ear, shivering slightly as the truthful words rolled off his tongue. They were honest. He _liked_ Bokuto, trusted him, even. The owl had his best interests at heart, he was certain of it.

Bokuto abruptly stiffened and snapped his head up, boring into his soul with yellow eyes. Keiji had hoped that his words would make the owl stop his sensual torment-- his body was aching with an intense passion, so much so that his inner thighs were wet with his own anticipation. He _needed_ to be knotted soon, or he was going to lose his mind.

Bokuto flashed him a playful smirk, indicating that he had no intention of stopping. A frustrated whine escaped Keiji’s lips and he arched further into the air, attempting to entice his Alpha into action, but the owl ignored his amorous display, trailing an undamaged finger down the divots of his spine. Then, Bokuto gingerly swept across his sex, golden eyes glowing in the dim light, commanding his gaze in return. Keiji whimpered again and pleaded to him with foggy, cobalt eyes.

“Please… _please_ …”

Bokuto raised a cheeky eyebrow at his desperation and prodded into his sex at an agonizingly slow pace, leaving his muscles screaming in sexual frustration. Every inch of his body was humming to life with hot energy, pooling liquid honey inside his gut.

“Tell me how much you want it,” Bokuto challenged with a guttural growl, eyes darkening with feral lust. "Tell. Me."

“I-I need it…” Keiji panted, stuttering as the Alpha gently stroked along the outside of his quivering sex once more. “Please!” He whined again, pushing into the soft bed to raise his ass higher. “Alpha…please...I... _need._..it…please...”

Responding to his frantic cries, Bokuto pushed a finger into his aching hole, sending explosions of pleasure throughout his vibrating limbs. He slid back against the large hand, rocking his hips in furious desperation. _Anything to fill himself more._

After a few brief moments of relief, the owl pulled away, leaving him panting into the white sheets, empty and frustrated. He snapped his head over his shoulder and once again beseeched the Alpha with his eyes, whining out of instinct-- _whining for his Alpha’s knot._ He was in the palm of Bokuto’s hand, and it was driving him to lustful insanity.

“What do you want… _Omega?_ ” The owl teased in a husky tone, grazing his lips along the soft skin of his neck. “You need to be more clear, Keiji. You need to _tell_ me what you want.”

He internally cursed himself for choosing such a cheeky, playful Alpha. The _stupid_ question left him flushed with embarrassment-- he was still _very_ new to the whole _..intimacy thing._ While his natural instincts had done well to answer some of his questions, his logical mind still had no idea what he was supposed to do.

“I…” He began, pushing his face into the covers to hide his crimson flush. “Please fill it......my hole. Please...I need it,” he mumbled, rocking his raised ass in a sensual motion.

“You’re so cute when you’re shy,” Bokuto whispered with a possessive growl, kissing his half-hidden cheek, buried among the cotton sheets.

The Alpha slid his muscular body down his back and he glanced over his shoulder, watching as he sniffed the air with his damaged nose. Then, Bokuto raked his darkening gaze over him, slowly pushing a finger inside his wet sex. A lustful groan escaped Keiji’s lips and beads of sweat crept over his pale skin as he arched forward. The owl smirked at his struggles and added a second digit, leaving him to naturally rock back against the large fingers.

 _Add more. Please. Knot me. Please_ . _Please. Alpha. Please_. His Omega instincts bled forward into his waking mind, coating his thoughts in a primal sludge that desired nothing other than to be knotted. He could feel his juices gliding down his slick thighs, pooling into the covers below and his lips quivered into the white bedding as he ground back against Bokuto’s playful fingers, as if his life depended on it.

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto had enjoyed watching Keiji squirm in unchecked pleasure, but when the icy Omega arched back, rocking against his fingers in moaning desperation, it was almost too much for him to take. His knot was rearing to mount the whining boy, but he willed himself to keep it together. _Just a little longer. Just a little bit longer._ He pulled his fingers back, pushed himself off the bed, and shoved down his black briefs, exposing his hard cock to the cool air of the room. As he moved back to the mattress, his dark eyes locked onto Keiji’s presented sex-- soaked with slick juices, dripping down his milky thighs into a wet puddle at his quivering knees. If he had been able to fully inhale the aroused, metallic scent, he would have gone feral the mere instant Keiji’s clothes had come off. He shook his head, pushing for a few more minutes of sanity and knelt down on the behind the icy Omega.

“Do you want me to fuck you,” he growled, swatting a pale cheek with his palm, then leaned over Keiji’s slender back from behind. He wasn’t done riling the boy up. _Not yet._ He was going to take advantage of his battered sinuses.

Keiji groaned and arched his shaking body into the sheets, but the action wasn't enough-- Bokuto wanted _verbal_ consent. After meeting the yellow house Omegas, he promised to never fuck one without it.  

“I said...” He snarled and spanked the cheek again, this time time leaving a red mark on the pale skin. “Do you _want_ me to fuck you.”

Keiji shook his hips and clawed out in front, squeezing the white sheets between his tense fingers. “Yes!” He panted, looking over his shoulder with glassy, cobalt eyes. “P-please!”

Bokuto took a moment to contemplate, finding it immensely difficult with the constant static of primal instincts screeching through his brain. _If he knotted Keiji...would they regret it? He didn't want to lose the boy. He couldn’t...but things had moved along so fast._ Twenty hours ago, he was begging for advice on how to approach the cobalt Omega. _Now...he was about to fuck him._ Hecradled the small figure beneath him, fighting the growing panic setting into his bones. _He couldn’t lose Keiji. He wouldn’t survive without his cold, metallic scent._

“Are you sure,” he growled in question, knowing his uncertainties were clear to the Omega-- Keiji would pick up on the abrupt change in his scent.

“Yes! I’m sure! I’m not going to regret it! PLEASE. I’m going insane! Please, ALPHA!” Keiji cried out, punching into the mattress in frustration. “P-please…”

_Good. Consent. Mine. MINE._

Bokuto allowed the confines of his mind to glaze over and his eyes darkened to a rich gold as his feral instincts happily poured out with fervor. He flipped Keiji onto his back and pinned him in place, fiercely claiming the boy’s wet mouth with his own. As their tongues intertwined, he caressed down Keiji’s sticky skin, gripping onto his small cock. When he began to methodically stroke its length, the icy Omega melted into him, blending their fragrances together in a chaotic mess that left his head spinning.

After a few lustful minutes, Keiji moaned into his mouth, his small body twitching in near orgasm, but Bokuto released his grip, wanting them to come together. Before the Omega had chance to protest, he grazed his teeth along the boy’s exposed scent glands and bit down, tasting warm blood on his tongue. Suddenly, the world around in slowed and his body was rushed with a powerful euphoria unlike anything he had ever experienced. A metallic fragrance flooded his mind, coursing through his veins with a pleasant cold that stirred his senses to life. For a few moments of eternity, he lost himself in vivid arousal, until a slender hand moved across his sweaty chest. He adjusted himself to his knees, glancing at the Omega beneath him with questioning eyes. Keiji flashed him a coy smirk, then shimmied himself back against the oak headboard and pulled his slender legs up, resting then against the wood behind him.

Bokuto’s instincts roared out at the flexible figure before him _\--_ his Omega’s sex was in plain view, open, ready to be _claimed_ . He roughly grabbed Keiji’s ankles and pushed them further back against the wall. _He wanted more. More exposure. More view. More everything._ He lined up his swollen cock and leaned forward against Keiji’s extended legs, forcing his organ inside the awaiting hole.

“Oh God…” Keiji gasped out as he slid his member into the slick hole with ease. “Oh god. Push it deeper. I need it. Pleaseeee Alphaaa.”

Bokuto was more than willing to comply. In a single thrust, he plunged in his full length, happy to watch Keiji’s cobalt eyes widen from disoriented lust. Suddenly, his mind became enraptured by sheer tightness of his Omega’s sex, its wet grasp throwing him headfirst into an even greater league pleasure.

 _He didn't want to thrust in and out. He didn't want to pull out. He wanted to push deeper. He didn’t want his ecstasy to fade. Ever._ Rotating his hips in small circles, Bokuto ground his cock against Keiji’s walls to heighten his own pleasure. _So tight. So tight. Deeper. Deeper._ _More_. His sexual instincts barked out repeated commands, greedy for higher levels of euphoria as he jammed his cock into the icy Omega with frenzied madness.

When a blubbering whimper echoed into his ears from somewhere far away, he continued his reckless venture, but as the whimpering grew louder, he slowly snapped back to reality. Pulling back slightly, his foggy eyes glanced down at Keiji-- his abdomen scrunched under the weight of the thrusts, his ankles bruising from the tight grip around them, his cobalt eyes dull with pain.

“Fuck. Are you. Are. You. Okay,” Bokuto snarled out at once, upset to find that his conscious worry was completely lost in his feral tone. “Fuck. Fuck! I forgot. Virgin. Shit,” he continued, panic setting up a knotted pit deep inside his stomach. He tried to focus, tried to stop himself from grinding his enlarged cock any further, but found himself too lost in dazed ecstasy-- his instincts were too in control of his actions. He internally roared at his feral mind, consciously trying to pry back his control. _He was hurting his Omega._ _He was hurting him...and there was nothing he could do to stop himself._

**Keiji~**

“Fuck. Are. You. Okay. Virgin,” Keiji heard a string of words snarl out from above him.

He was delirious. Pain and pleasure had permeated every corner of his mind. Bokuto was far too big for him, but he found himself uncaring-- his instinctual desire to be knotted outweighed the agony of the Alphas size.  

_Virgin…he called me...virgin?_

He wasn’t a virgin, Jime had stolen that from him. _Did_... _Bokuto consider him one? How could he disregard everything that had happened with Jime?_ Suddenly, his mind pieced together the puzzle, flooding his chest with crashing waves of warm gratitude. _His Alpha hated Jime for hurting him. His Alpha refused to acknowledge his assault as his first time. His Alpha considered himself as Keiji’s first._

“I don’t...I don’t care!” Keiji cried out in exasperation, doing his best to hide the pain in his quivering voice. “Keep. Going. Keep fucking going, Alpha.”

At his words, Bokuto thrust in deeper, his scent unravelling in a flurry of upset arousal. As the end of the Alpha’s member jarred into his swollen sex, a slicing ache pierced through his abdomen and loud whine escaped his panting lips. The dimly lit room blurred away, but he forced his cloudy mind through the pain. His cobalt eyes flickered over the muscular figure above him, holding his ankles against the headboard as he slammed forward.

All of Keiji’s focus shifted to the swollen cock pounding into him, painfully stretching his sex to accommodate its size. _He didn’t care. He didn’t care that it hurt, he didn't care that his ankles were bruised and sore, he didn't care that his abdomen was quivering with muscle spasms._  His Alpha’s raw and powerful scent was consuming him with its enticing energy. In that moment, Bokuto’s pleasure was all that mattered. The desire was not an instinctual need to pleasure his Alpha-- it was from a place of care. He _wanted_ Bokuto to feel good.

After long minutes of cramping discomfort, Keiji gasped once more as the huge invader began to swell. He cried out loudly he tore against the large knot, embedded inside his drenched sex.

“Please. Keiji. Relax. Please. I’m knotting. Please. Stay. Still.” Bokuto snarled down at him, dripping saliva onto his pale, sweaty chest.

He could smell the Alpha’s anger. He could smell his self-deprecation... _hurting his Omega._ The overbearing fragrance simultaneously filled his heart with warm admiration, and his gut with a twisted knot of grief.

Bokuto swiftly pulled him upwards, spun him around on the growing knot, and sat down on the edge of the mattress. He whimpered against the owl's chest as his hole strained ever wider for the unimaginable size of the cock. He gnashed his teeth, inwardly cursing himself for being so tight. The Alpha's desperate scent was increasing with each passing second, devolving into a state of sheer panic. _It was all his fault._

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” The owl growled softly against his ear, reaching down to pump his small cock with an undamaged hand.

As his touch, Keiji was plunged into throes of pleasure, dulling the pain radiating from his damaged sex. He whined out with instinctual desire and arched into Bokuto’s sticky chest, nearing climax. The owl strengthened his grip and possessively bit into the tender flesh of his shoulder, sending him into sensory overload. As he enjoyed his full release, splattering ropes of orgasm between their figures, Bokuto’s knot erupted, filling him with warm seed.

Keiji sighed in relief and his body relaxed forward as the invader shrank down to normal size. When Bokuto gingerly pulled his member out, his body went into autopilot. He sluggishly lowered himself back against the mattress, his abdomen seizing up in shark ticks of pain as he did so. _So annoying,_ he thought to himself, _immensely unhappy with his small body...his inability to fit his Alpha’s length. It was pathetic._

“FUCK,” Bokuto snarled out, his footsteps clamoring away from the bed. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” he continued to bark from a few feet away, his tone a twisted mix of panicked shame.  

Keiji gingerly flipped himself onto his side to face the owl and a sharp pain zapped into naval, prompting him to keel over to mediate the ache.

“Keiji. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” Bokuto growled on repeat, his normally cheerful face contorted with pained desperation. He took another step back, plastering himself against the wall, yellow eyes downcast-- completely dejected.

_Keiji hated his scent...shame and dread...neither suited the owl._

“Stop. Please stop. It’s fine,” he said softly, slowly pushing himself up to a seated position on the mattress. As shuffled closer to the edge of the bed, his hand landing on something wet and he glanced down at the mixture of seed and blood, staining into the white sheets. He furrowed his brows and reached behind him to gently touched his sex-- _it was slick with blood, but it wasn’t enough to cause a panic. Bokuto was overreacting._  

“I did that. I fucking hurt you,” the owl snarled, his frenzied eyes darting between the stain and Keiji. “Fuck. FUCK. How could I be so stupid. FUCK.”

“Bokuto. Stop. Stop it, I’m fine. I just couldn’t fit you. It’s not your fault,” Keiji interjected in between the cursing. He did his best to release a tranquil fragrance, finding it easier as the dull pain subsided in his abdomen.  

“I hurt you. Fuck. I hurt you!”

“STOP!” Keiji yelled at the overwhelmed boy in front of him, angry with the Alpha's inability to think logically. “STOP IT. I CONSENTED. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT. I’M HARDLY EVEN HURT.”

The owl’s broad shoulders flinched at the volume of his voice and he averted gaze, looking down at the floor in shame.

“Would you come over here?” Keiji drawled, changing the tone of his voice back to its usual lazy demeanor-- now that he had the Alpha’s full attention. He reached beside him and pulled the white comforter over the bloody patch-- it was obviously triggering Bokuto’s instincts. “Just come over here.”

Bokuto stiffened against the wall and clenched his fists. “I don’t want to hurt you. If I come over there...”

 _He was done with this. Fuck,_ he thought with a small sigh, _he was going to have to get used to these dramatic outbursts if he was going to have Bokuto as a partner._

“Would you relax? How the fuck is you coming over here going to hurt me? You’re being dramatic. Whether you like it or not, I’m going to _continue_ having sex with you _until_ I get to a point where I _can_ fit you. UNTIL THEN, you’re going to have to deal with this shit. So get it together and get your ass over here,” he snapped at the pouting Alpha, patting the bed once more to beckon him over.  

Bokuto hesitantly shuffled towards him, grabbing his black briefs from the floor to cover himself. Then, he gingerly sat on the edge of the mattress, facing away with slouched shoulders. Keiji huffed out in frustration and and crawled across the covers to kneel behind his Alpha. Reaching his arms around Bokuto’s stomach, he rested his head on the muscular back and inhaled the remorseful scent.

“You know…” He began, trying to find the right words, he didn’t want to upset the owl any further. “You’re my Alpha. When you hurt me accidentally...and believe me, that’s going to happen...all I want is for you to hold me in your arms and…protect me? That’s how you make this shit better. Not running away and chastising yourself into oblivion.”

Bokuto hesitantly glanced over his shoulder and Keiji pulled back to meet his yellow gaze. After a few moments, he rose up on his knees and cupped the owl’s face with his small hands.

“Apology accepted, okay? So get over it...” He whispered, kissing Bokuto softly on the lips.

“I’ll be better next time. I promise...” The Alpha whispered and sighed into another kiss, relaxing into Keiji’s metallic tranquility.

“How about next time…” Keiji started, nipping playfully at his jaw to cheer him up. “I take the top. Then I can set the pace if it gets too painful.”

“Mmm…” Bokuto murmured as he swung Keiji’s delicate legs over his lap. Keiji relaxed into the crevice of his elbow and trailed light kisses up his bicep. Bokuto reached down, flicked a black hair out of his face, and caressed his undamaged cheek.

“I’m fucking relieved that you want to try again,” he said, rocking the Omega cradled in his arms. “My head space...plummeted. I mean, I just got you. I don't know, I don't want to lose you before we even start…”

“Of course I want to try again,” Keiji murmured as he inhaled, drowning in the protective scent whisking off of Bokuto’s clammy skin. “And you won't. Stop worrying.”

Bokuto flashed a sweet smile, then reached behind and flipped over the comforter. He unleashed a frustrated growl at the bloody stain and shook his head and stood up, cradling Keiji against the side of his body. He yanked a pillow from the floor and flung it wildly around until it flew out of its satin case, landing on the ground with a soft thud.  With a subtle nod of approval, he gingerly placed the white linen over the red splatter and laid Keiji down on the covers.

 _My, my,_ Keiji pondered with a coy smirk, _his Alpha really didn’t like seeing his blood. That was a good sign._

Bokuto picked up the naked pillow once more, puffed it up, then threw it next to Keiji. He rolled his neck once around before crawling onto the bed to pull the comforter over their forms. Keiji turned to face him and curled into his strong chest, liquid honey pooling in his stomach as the owl reached his arms over his figure and nestled a damaged nose into his black hair.

“You’re like a drug…” He heard the owl whisper under his breath, sniffing into the crown of his head with vigor. “Like a fucking drug…”

“What?” He whispered back, purring as the owl scratched methodically down his back. 

“Daichi...he said Suga’s scent was like a drug…” Bokuto replied, inhaling deep into his dark locks. “I get it…I can’t get enough of your scent. It’s like...I’m never satisfied. I want more. It’s...it’s incredibly frustrating...”

Keiji smiled against Bokuto’s hot skin and immersed himself in the protective fragrance. In an instant, a tingling feeling of satisfaction crept up his chest, flowing through his entire body.

“Well…” He murmured, knowing sleep was going to overtake him soon. “You have free access to it now…for the very low price of sex...”

“Mmmm…” Bokuto mumbled, squeezing Keiji tighter as he chuckled at the coy remark.

The pair remained in comfortable silence, with Keiji purring against Bokuto's broad chest. He had never been so content, and it was not long before he drifted off into a lovely sleep, feeling safe in the arms of his Alpha. 


	27. Domestic Affairs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its been longer than usual between updates, I'm trying to sort out some more chapters...to figure out where the story is gonna go.
> 
> For nowwww, enjoy some shallow, freakayyyy fluff and smut!
> 
> Thanks for reading :)
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Twenty Seven: Domestic Affairs**

**Suga~**

When Suga at last arrived home, the sun was quickly setting on the final day of the weekend. There was no chance of him attending school the following morning, if everything went as planned, Oikawa would be released in the afternoon and he was definitely going to be there to pick him up from the hospital.

He granted Miyo a tired wave as he watched her drive off down the sunset tinted neighborhood, then turned on his heels towards the front walkway of the yellow house. Very few lights were on-- _Keiji must have put in some good work, getting everyone to rest their tired minds._

As he entered the oaken entryway, he was hit with a familiar smell. Not of anyone or anything in particular just.. _.home._  It comforted his exhausted mind. He briskly scanned the main floor, finding it vacant, then kicked off his shoes and rounded the stairs to check on his flock.

Hiking up to the third floor, he quietly tiptoed down the dark hallway and opened the door to the tea green room. After his eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, he noticed four figures in a pile of messy cuddles on the padded floor near the curtained bay windows. A small smile flickered across his lips-- relieved that they were all safe and sleeping soundly. _However._. _.where was Keiji?_

He furrowed his brows at the thought and lightly sniffed the air, following Keiji’s lazy scent back out into the hallway. _Yuji’s overzealous fragrance was definitely hunkered down in the vacant room across from the nest and Bokuto was behind the door to the left...ah...with Keiji._ He sniffed once more, filling his nostrils with his nestmate’s unusually pronounced scent-- whirling around with a sort of melancholy joy. It was content and satiated, something he had never smelled on Keiji before that moment.

_Nothing like a tragedy to bring people together…_

After he had confirmed the safety of his flock, Suga took a few moments to debate his own predicament. _Should he nest with his fellow Omega housemates…no._ After seeing them sleeping so soundly, he decided that it would be best not to disturb them. Or, at least, that was the lie he _tried_ to tell himself. In reality, nesting wasn't what he needed... _or wanted_.

Resigning himself to his desires, Suga descended the stairs, stepping onto the second floor, careful not to make a sound on the creaky floorboards. As he neared Daichi's room, his stomach skittered to life with butterflies. He could smell the captain’s frustrated scent, ripe with worry over his absence-- prominent even in his unconscious state of sleep.

Reaching forward to turn the brass door knob, Suga entered the familiar room, finding himself excited at the prospect of being reunited with the dark Alpha. Something inside of him, deep down in a place he rarely explored, he noticed that a large piece of his soul was... _missing._ He felt empty and exposed without Daichi’s caring scent flickering around him-- warming him with its it's open honesty. The captain had never held his feelings back from his scent, Suga knew that better than anyone. It was a vulnerability that both enticed him, and toyed with his nerves. He knew that Daichi was growing frustrated with his lack of verbal commitment, and, after everything that had happened over the last seventy eight hours, he owed it to the captain to confess his fears of their growing relationship.

 _He just wasn't sure what he wanted to say, not quite yet._ All he knew was that he never wanted to have a mate.

**Daichi~**

Daichi was having a rather unpleasant dream, one filled with blood and Alpha swine, when a familiar scent stirred his conscious mind from its hibernation. _Suga_. He sat up in an instant, glancing towards the door at the Omega-- his pale skin illuminated by the early moon, peeking through his open window. The silver boy flashed him a faint smile.

_He looked so exhausted...forlorn...and...dejected._

Daichi gathered his half naked form up from the bed and swiftly crossed the room. Without a word, he gingerly scooped up Suga and cradled him against his broad chest-- heart bursting with liquid warmth from the physical contact with _his_ Omega.

“I missed you…” He whispered, inhaling into the boy's hair-- upset to find that a multitude of unpleasant fragrances had worked their way into the silver locks.

“Mmm…” Suga purred in response and curled up in his arms like a cat, relaxing into his embrace.

The Omega’s sweet scent washed over him, weak from exhaustion, yet effective in comforting the deep recesses of his soul. He gently lowered Suga to the edge of the bed, unzipped the boy's grey hoodie, and pulled up the shirt beneath it. As he shuffled the silver Omega out of his clothing, Daichi grazed his lips over the smooth skin of his shoulder and across his fragile collar bones. Suga purred at the affection, melting down into the covers beneath his seated figure in contentment.

“Daichi…” He murmured as Daichi nuzzled into his neck, inhaling his scent glands with vivid satisfaction.

“Yeah…”

“Bokuto is with Keiji…”

“Mmm...nothing like a tragedy to bring people together.” When he felt Suga stiffen at his words, he moved back to gaze at him in question. “What’s wrong, did I--”

“Oh,” the silver haired boy interjected, lightly shaking his head as a shy smile crept across his face. “I swear that I was thinking the same thing a few minutes ago…”

“Well, it’s true,” Daichi softly affirmed, rolling onto the mattress to bury himself in the sheets. “You coming to bed?”

“Yeah…” Suga replied with furrowed brows as he tucked himself in next to Daichi’s large figure. “But, it's strange, isn't it?”

Daichi knew that tone. It meant that the nosy Omega had come up with a new hypothesis, something that might help them solve the puzzle of their weird, hybrid pack. “What is?” He pushed forward, running a large hand up the smooth skin of Suga’s thigh. “Strange that Bokuto managed to actually _charm_ someone into liking him?”

“No!” Suga softly exclaimed with a sly giggle. “Well, _yes_ , but no. That's not what I was thinking of. Listen, you and I took, what, two weeks to partner up-"

“What are the timeline specifics here, because-"

“Okay, between _admitting_ attraction to ourselves and to each other. Does that make sense?”

“Mmm,” Daichi pondered out loud, rolling his neck on its axis. “Sure, two weeks sounds right, then.”

Suga shuffled under the blankets and sighed. “So, two weeks for us. I’d say, about a week and a half for Hajime and Oikawa? For sure one week for Keiji and Bokuto. And now...we’ve got Yuji and Yachi on a two day timeline,” he rattled off, his hazel eyes shining with the unchecked curiosity Daichi so loved to admire. “The relationships are...accelerating. Aren't they? Like some sort of domino effect...”

“While I do agree that the theory is a good start...Yamaguchi doesn't fit into it. Right? Neither does Shoyo.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tsukishima has had feelings for the kid for at least a week now, and vise versa. I can smell it, especially at practice when he's less careful with his scent. But neither of them have done shit about it.”

“Mmm,” Suga murmured, huffing out a bit of frustrated air, upset that his theory was debunked so readily. “Well that throws that out the window…Shoyo and Tobio are in a similar boat I guess.”

Daichi smiled, grazing his hand higher to grab onto the Omega’s narrow hips. “Keep thinking. You've got more ideas on this whole, messed up pack thing than I do…” He whispered, gracefully pulling the boy against his body under the navy covers. “And you're smarter than me, that's for sure.”

“Mmm,” Suga conceded, curling into Daichi’s chest. “We...should have a big dinner when Oikawa comes home,” he piped up again after a few moments of pleasant silence, purring as Daichi scented into his hair.

Daichi loved the idea. When he received Keiji’s text earlier that afternoon, he had been absolutely overjoyed that the chestnut boy had pulled through. Oikawa was, without a doubt, the toughest boy he had ever met in his life-- Alpha or otherwise. In fact, if Daichi himself had retained the same facial wounds, he would have been openly dejected for days. _Weeks, even._

“I agree...a celebration...one that won’t be interrupted like the last time.”

“Mmm…” Suga sighed, his breathing growing shallow as he succumbed to his exhaustion.

 _A party. A proper one this time. One for Oikawa...and for their strange pack_ , Daichi thought to himself, stirring his thoughts into a dreamless sleep.  

**Kuroo~~**

“I can’t believe I slept through the whole thing…” Kuroo heard his Omega whine against his chest. “I had too much to drink. I guess…”  

He was _thankful_ his mate had slept through it all. If _his_ Omega had been involved... _fuck._ He didn’t even want to think about what could have happened. It frightened him, and the thought of it left a massive, rotting knot inside of his gut.

“I’m glad you were asleep,” he growled at once, squeezing the small boy against his body. “I'm _glad_.”

“I guess…” His Omega breathed against his bare chest before rolling into the sheets beside him.

Kuroo inhaled his mate’s scent as it wafted through the air at his movement, then glanced over to the red alarm clock on his bedside table-- _11:00pm_. He had slept through the entire day, yet his body, and his mind, still felt entirely drained of life. His fidgeting mate certainly wasn't tired, though. The small boy shimmied up, sitting cross legged with his back against the far wall. He let out an enormous, Kenma-like sigh and by his scent, Kuroo could tell that the he was upset with himself.

_Upset that everyone had been hurt while he was passed out drunk._

“Kenma, don’t be so grumpy,” Kuroo chastised in an exasperated tone, pushing off his warm covers to sit up against the headboard of the bed. “It’s not like you could've done anything against those fuckheads. You probably would be just gotten hurt.”

 _He would have just gotten hurt._ At that honest statement, Kuroo balled the sheets in his fists at his sides. _If the intruders had so much as looked at his mate, he would have annihilated them from existence._

“I know…” Kenma replied and softly hit the back of his head against the hard plaster behind him. “I dunno. I’m just upset. I guess…seeing everyone’s injuries at the hospital...even your hands...” He continued in whisper, running his delicate fingers over Kuroo’s bruised knuckles-- white from his tense thoughts. “I hate it...it's so stupid.”  

“Why don’t you come back over here and go to sleep,” Kuroo growled in half command, his instincts growing restless from his spiraling thoughts. They were becoming more and more distressed with each passing second. 

_Kenma’s safety...he wanted the Omega to get his ass back into his arms. He needed to scent him again, and again. And then again._

“I’m not tired,” Kenma lazily replied and gingerly pulled away from Kuroo’s light grip. “I’ve been asleep for almost _twenty hours_ …why would I crawl back into bed now…? That doesn't make any sense.”

“Because I want you to.”

“No.”

Kenma looked up with intense, cat-like eyes and Kuroo matched his gaze, accepting the nonverbal challenge. After an intense stare down, his Omega slowly moved towards him, much to his relief. But the elation of his victory was shattered as his mate reached past him with cat-like grace, yellow eyes fixed on his video game that was resting on the bedside table.

_What a sneaky little bastard…_

Kuroo unleashed a throaty rumble of irritation and grabbed the tiny boy by his waist, pulling him into his broad chest with ease.  

“Kuroo!” The Omega whined, struggling in his lap. “You can sleep by yourself...it’s not going to kill you!”

“Who said anything about sleeping,” Kuroo snarled into the boy’s ear, his instincts roaring about his mind with unchecked ferocity.

Exhaustion had depleted his ability to suppress his Alpha inhibitions. His vivid thoughts, images of Kenma being touched by the intruders, unleashed his dominance in full force. _He wanted to fuck his mate, he needed to. Needed to smell his own scent on the boy’s pale skin. In his hair. Inside of him. Everywhere. Kenma was his._

“If we fuck...then I’ll fall asleep and you can play your _shitty_ game,” he growled, eyes dark with primal lust.

“My game isn’t _shitty_ , and you can't use coercion against me...” Kenma chirped back, granting him a lazy, sly wink. “That’s cheating…”

“It’s only coercion if you don’t want to fuck,” Kuroo rumbled back, happily scenting the boy’s dyed blonde hair along his neck.

“Who says I do…” Kenma huffed in challenge, unhappily crossing his arms against his chest, eyes still fixed on his console resting on the table.

In an instant, Kuroo flipped smaller boy onto the mattress and pinned him on his back, snarling into his face with white teeth. The more _his_ Omega resisted his advances, the more aggressive his instincts became. They _needed_ Kenma to have his scent. _Needed_ it above all else.

“I can smell your arousal,” he whispered in threat, licking up his Omega’s scent glands to taste the honest desire embedded within them. “You’re a terrible liar, Kenma…”

His mate sunk down into the navy covers, releasing a fragrance of embarrassment that made his cock harden against the boy’s thigh. “At least I’m not a horndog...your scent is way worse than mine…” Kenma whispered and averted his gaze to the side, coyly exposing his glands.

No matter how sheepish his mate pretended to be, Kuroo knew that it was all an act. Kenma was always watching, always listening. Human interactions were a game of chess to him-- a way for him to maneuver the pieces and get the outcome he desired. Kuroo had to keep his wits about him, or he would lose in a heartbeat.

“Yeah, it’s because I’m thinking about _fucking_ you. I don’t want anyone else to touch you. Not. Ever.” Kuroo growled softly into Kenma’s ear, receiving a soft whimper in return. “You are _mine_.”

 _He needed to knot into his mate to protect him. Protect him against disgusting, uncivilized Alphas with his own dominant scent. Protect him against those who would hurt him._ In that moment, he didn’t care if Kenma didn’t understand the nature of his intense desire. He would do everything in his power to defend the boy, and the yellow house Omegas-- defend them all against the world. Even if he had to be...a little aggressive.

**Kenma~**

“Yeah...because I’m thinking about fucking you.” Kuroo growled softly into his ear and he let out an instinctual whimper, influenced by his mate’s domineering scent.

Kuroo was unleashing such a raw, sexual fragrance that Kenma couldn’t help himself from shivering back into the navy covers. His Alpha was definitely in an aggressive mood.. _.likely brought on by the earlier events-- replaying them in his mind, like an idiot._

After drawing the simple conclusion, he realized that he had two options. _Submit and have sex or give the rooster a bit of a fight...rile him up more...make things a little more interesting._ His yellow gaze flickered up at Kuroo’s dark eyes, _option two,_ he thought to himself with a sly smirk. _Rile him up._

He swiftly rolled to his side, squeezed between the Alpha and the mattress, and clamored to his feet on the hardwood. Then, he turned on his heels to face his mate and readied himself for retaliation, but the man remained in his position-- holding himself up with his hands and knees on the navy covers. He suppressed another instinctual whine as his Alpha slowly rolled his head towards him, meeting his gaze with a feral intensity that had his shivering with anticipation. His heart began to pound in his chest.

_His Alpha was going to absolutely dominate him. His eyes were predatory-- ready to take what he desired._

He watched on with growing arousal as Kuroo rose from the bed and stood at full height, aggression pouring off his muscular body in droves of temptation. Kenma subconsciously took a few steps back, anxiously awaiting his Alpha’s next move, curious as to what it would be.

The rooster made his way towards him at an agonizingly slow pace, stalking him like a panther. He began to back away further before ramming his lower back against his computer desk, slightly flinching as a cup of pencils scattered to the ground at the impact. “Kuroo...” He whispered in hesitation, unsure of what his mate was planning, but nonetheless excited with the prospect.

 _No response._ _Feral silence._

Kuroo continued to move towards him, finally stopping just inches away from his quivering figure. He looked up at the man with his yellow eyes, pleading for mercy, yet wanting to be taken-- though, he would never admit it. His Alpha was massive compared to his petite frame. Over a foot taller and nearly a hundred pounds heavier. On the few occasions when Kuroo had been in a similar mood of instinctual aggression, Kenma had been bruised-- sore for days afterwards from their fucking. Yet, he had never cared about his aching body. The sex had always been incredible-- _definitely worth the side effects._

“Kuroo…?” He whispered again, straining his neck to look up at his tall mate.

“Trying to get away…” His Alpha growled down at him in a threatening tone that sent tingles down to his toes. “Did you think that would work. Did you think you could slip away...play your shitty game...?”

Kenma looked down at his feet and smirked, _victory was near._ He was more than willing to play Kuroo’s little game of verbal cat and mouse. “It _did_ work. I got away,” he coyly remarked, happy to fuel the Alpha’s primal fire.

Kuroo snapped at the cheeky words. He roughly grabbed Kenma by the hips, spun him around, and bent him over the computer desk, pushing his face into the surface of his laptop. His Alpha held him in place with a large hand between his shoulder blades while the other clamored at the band of his black sweatpants.

“No. It _didn’t_ work work,” the rooster snarled from behind him, shoving the fabric down to expose his sex to the cold air of the room.

Kenma whimpered into the metal laptop as the dominant Alpha scent overwhelmed his senses, prompting him to naturally rock his hips back in desire. When his mate eagerly jammed two fingers inside his open hole, feeling around at his walls, he tried to move his body against them. He needed _more_. Needed to be filled, but the rooster pulled away, leaving him upset and empty. He whined out in complaint, receiving a hard spank in return. The impact had him yelping out in pain and he grabbed at the back edges of his desk to steady himself, halfheartedly struggling against the wood surface.

He had been with his Alpha since he was sixteen. They had been childhood friends and their fathers were close since their high school years. In fact, Kenma counted himself lucky that he had met Kuroo at such a young age-- with the Alpha’s unwitting protection he had been able to bypass the heartbreaking abuse that most Omegas went through during their formative years. While the two had developed feelings for each other at a young age, Kuroo had been adamant that they not mate until eighteen. Until then, the rooster boy had kept a close eye on him to prevent other Alphas from touching him. Admittedly, it had been an adjustment for them when they entered University, but Kuroo eventually accepted that his mated scent was enough to defend his Omega against unwanted sexual advances. A realization for which Kenma was grateful, he valued his alone time.

While he loved sleeping with Kuroo, eight years of sexual relations had prompted them to recently... _try a few new things to spice things up in the bedroom_. He had realized early on that Kuroo enjoyed dominating him in bed, a trait that was fairly common among Alphas. Kenma had enjoyed the spanking the first time they tried it, nearly a year ago, but it was his Alpha’s pleasure in the action that made him absolutely willing to participate. They didn’t utilize it often, most of the time, vanilla sex was more than enough, and they had never done it when Kuroo was in such an aggressive mood. Kenma was both nervous and aroused with the prospect. He was ready to be submissive and more than ready for the pain.  

Kuroo slid a large hand up his spine and grabbed his hair, jerking his head back with force. “Taunting me. Climbing over me with your ass up in the air. All to get your shitty game...” His Alpha leaned into his back to whisper in his ear, biting at the lobe. “I think that deserves a punishment. Don't you?”

Kenma knew it wasn't a question. He increased his grip on the back edges of the desk, waiting patiently for whatever was to come. When Kuroo released the painful grip on his hair, he looked ahead at the wall and readied himself for punishment.

“You are such a _naughty_ Omega,” his mate snarled, his throat rumbling in a near constant loop of ferocity. “Ten. You'll take ten.”

Kenma furiously nodded in understanding, then whimpered as his mate trailed a finger down his spine and across his exposed sex. He could feel his juices dripping down his shaking legs-- waiting to receive the spanks had always been most arousing part for him. Kuroo would spread them out, rile him up with his touch, then suddenly pull away and slap his cheeks.

“Look how _wet_ you are...waiting to be spanked. You like it, don't you?” His Alpha snarled, commanding an answer as he gently caressed Kenma's sopping inner thigh.  

“Yes…” Kenma shamefully replied, his cheeks flushing a deep crimson as he pushed his stomach into the desk to arch further into the air.  

In an instant, Kuroo hit his left cheek and he cried out, lowering his hips away from the source of the pain. His Alpha roughly grabbed them and raised his ass once more, slapping the same cheek once again, with more force. Tears pooled in his eyes, but he felt his small cock twitch in anticipation, trapped against the wood desk beneath him.

“Keep you slutty ass raised. Lower it again, and I’ll add more. Is that clear?” Kuroo barked down at him, holding his hips with a grip that would bruise.

Kenma furiously nodded with a quiet sniff and arched into the desk once more, raising up in understanding. He felt his Alpha lightly caress his sore cheek and stiffened as the man knelt down down behind him. Suddenly, Kuroo's tongue trailed over his moist sex and he gasped out, his body flooding with a hot blaze of abrupt arousal. His mind glazed over, responding to his Alpha’s teasing, and he lost control of his inhibitions-- subconsciously lowering his hips to grant his mate better access.

“What did I just say,” Kuroo snarled out in warning and grated Kenma with another hard slap that flushed red against his cheek.

Kuroo reached forward, grabbing around the front of his neck and pulled him up against his large body. Pushing down on the center on his back, the rooster arched him away, leaving him to hold a contorted position-- standing on the tips of his toes as he craned his neck forward.

“Stick out your ass,” his mate commanded in his ear and he complied, arching forward until his spine began to ache in discomfort.

He took in a deep breath of anticipation, feeling his Alpha increase the grip on his neck and move a large hand over his swollen ass. A series of hard and brutal slaps lashed out, far more than ten, but he didn't move an inch. He kept his ass presented through the entire ordeal. Even when he was whimpering, quivering in pain, his cock remained hard and his sex oozed out clear liquid, dripping down his thighs and onto the hardwood floor below. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the spanking stopped.  

“Good. Boy.” Kuroo snarled into his ear, drooling spit on the soft skin of his pale shoulder-- eyes fully darkened with feral lust.

Kenma shivered at the rumbling words and fought against an overwhelming instinct to present himself.. _.he hadn't been told that he could move yet._

 _“Gooooood._ Omega,” the rooster cooed again, jerking Kenma's head to the side to expose his scent glands. When his mate bit down onto them, drawing blood, he whimpered and grew limp in Kuroo’s strong arms.

“Alpha, _please...”_ He gasped as his mate licked at his bloody skin. _He needed to be filled. Now._ “Alpha…”

Kuroo ungracefully shoved three fingers inside his wet sex to sate his hot desire and continued to nip at his swollen scent glands. He tried to roll his aching hips back onto the digits, but they were too narrow. They weren't nearly enough to stop his body from burning up in arousal.

“Pleaaase,” he pleaded again, more loudly than before, trying to pull out of his mate’s strong grasp to present himself.

After a few minutes of unbent agony, Kuroo finally released him. He rushed to kick out of the sweatpants, pooled around his ankles, and scrambled down on the cold floor. Then, he bowed forward on his knees, forcing his sex into the air as high as he could manage. His cheeks screamed in pain as they spread apart, but he didn’t care. It only heightened his lust for his mate.

When he heard Kuroo shuffle out of his briefs behind him, he shook his hips and mewled loudly, wanting his Alpha to hurry. After receiving another hard slap for his impatience, his mate lined up his swollen cock to penetrate. Kenma let out a series of quivering whimpers as Kuroo buried large fingers in the pale flesh of his hips and thrust deep inside of him. As the full length pushed inside, he gasped out in satisfied ecstasy. He _loved_ feeling full from his Alpha’s member. It was as if he was floating through space and time-- the large invader rubbing against his sensitive walls, the hands bruising his hips-- every motion from his mate was entrancing. His eyes glossed over and he moaned softly, jerking forward with each heavy thrust from behind.

“I. Love. You,” Kuroo snarled at once, pinning his stomach against the hardwood to push his swollen cock further inside Kenma's quivering sex.

Then, the rooster rocked his hips downward, more gracefully than his previous thrusts, and began to gingerly kiss along the back of Kenma’s neck. The sudden change in pace, from furious aggression to gentleness, left Kenma’s small cock twitching in an orgasm. He cried out as he spilled his cum underneath his stomach, smearing it across his pale flesh and the hardwood as Kuroo began to knot, laying full weight down against his small body.

“MINE.” Kuroo growled into his ear. The protective scent that accompanied the possessive words pooled a warmth inside Kenma’s abdomen, prompting him to orgasm once more.

As he spasmed beneath his Alpha’s strong figure, his mate lovingly kissed down the trail of his spine and pushed out an overbearing, possessive fragrance that blanketed their forms with its power. When Kuroo at last burst his seed inside him, Kenma realized, once again, that he loved his caring Alpha with every fiber of his being. 

_He could never imagine life without him._

 


	28. The Flower Shop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okkkkkkkkk so I realize that this isn't a Haikyuu character, but I like her. AND, she's helping me world build a bit, plus, we've gotta give Ukai somebody to laaaaaaave. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!
> 
> (Also, I'm SO sorry if I didnt reply to anyone's comments, I try to get to them all, but sometimes I don't notice the email alert).
> 
> (Edit #1 Complete)

**Chapter Twenty Eight: The Flower Shop**

**Miyo~**

Miyo walked down the busy street, searching for the flower shop the nurse had recommended to her earlier. She wanted to get Oikawa a bundle of roses-- a welcome home present for when he was discharged from the hospital later that evening.

_Pink ones, or perhaps yellow. Something to lighten the mood. Actually, should she get roses at all? Sunflowers were his favorite, but they had no scent to them..._

She shook her head, deciding that she could figure out what to get once she actually  _found_ the shop. Adjusting her jean shorts against her small waist, she squeezed past a group of teenage Alphas who were crowded out front of a convenience store with their bikes. She was quick to note that there were many Omegas outside, daytime the hours were _mostly_ safe to go about their affairs, so long as they stayed in more public places. However, none of them were below the age of eighteen-- those poor souls were still isolated to their schools and homes. Not that any of the _unspoken_ Omega rules applied to her, she was mated. Even if she wasn't technically still _with_ her Alpha, his scent still did well to ward off any interested parties.

As she scanned the rows of shops and peddlers alongside the bust side street, happy for the humid, sunny day, she felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her light jeans. She dug it out of the tight fabric and clicked it on with a painted nail.

_Where are you? I just got to the hospital._

She smiled down at the welcome text-- the Alpha professor, Ukai, had been pretty well glued to her side since the incident a few days past. The two of them had frequented each other's company since the house merger, especially during their lunch hours, but he had never shown any level of attraction or interest in her. Not that she was surprised by that, her mated scent had really shot that horse in the face. Begrudgingly, Miyo had to admit that she enjoyed the sense of safety and comfort she had been feeling from Ukai's more recent presence... _and from his support with everything that had happened to her nest._  He was an invaluable Alpha, she could not deny it-- even if he looked like a delinquent with his dyed blonde hair and pierced ears.

She smiled at that thought, but it was filled with sorrow. It would be wise for her to clamp down on her recent attraction for the Alpha-- her mated status would never allow for anything  _real_ to happen between them. Shaking her head to banish her happy daydream, her fingers padded at the device in her hand.

_I'm just out looking for Binky’s Flower Shop, a nurse recommended it. Do you know where it is tho? I can't find it ANYWHERE!_

Before she had the chance to tuck her phone away, it buzzed again with Ukai’s quick reply.

_I think it’s near that burger place, uh, JR burgers? Or something that like. I think that It’s across the street from there, but I haven't been to this part of town in a while. I’ll meet you there though? :) :)_

Butterflies fluttered about inside Miyo’s stomach at the mere thought of meeting up with the ever-exasperated coach-- a bad sign in her books.  _Stop it,_ she internally chastised herself with a subtle roll of her eyes, _you’re mated! For christ's sake, stop that nonsense._ The more time she spent with the Alpha professor at the hospital, the more she had come to realize that her exmate’s scent didn't seem to bother him. At least, not like it would to most other Alphas. Just yesterday, Ukai had put a strong hand on her back and rubbed it comfortingly without a second thought. It was as if he was _completely_ ignorant of her mated status! _That couldn't be the case, could it? That was impossible!_ Her brows furrowed and she increased the pace of her walk, trying to physically outrun her annoying, happy thoughts. _Fuck, if only she had met Ukai sooner...perhaps then she could pursue her heart's strange desire for the man._

She shook her head once more and grimaced. She needed to think logically. She _needed_ to be realistic. There was no chance for the two of them to be together. Remating was highly rare-- absolutely  _insane_ Alphas were the only ones that seemed up to the challenge of remating an Omega. On the off chance, the very off chance, that Ukai would be willing to do something like that...

 _No! Stop it!_  She yelled inside her own head, growing angry with her inability to stop her Ukai-oriented train of thought. She stopped walking for a moment and closed her emerald eyes, internally repeating three important facts to shut the idea out forever. There _was no way Ukai would even contemplate remating her. There were so many other Omega fish in the sea. In mating with her ex, she had made her bed, and she was doomed to lie in it forever._

She took in a deep breath of clean air, solidifying the facts as her reality, then noticed the burger joint ahead. Across from it lay the quaint florist shop that she had been looking for. She swiftly crossed the street, zig zagging through traffic as she did so. Stepping onto the sidewalk, she glanced up at a massive neon sign with a sculpture of a rose entwined with the pink lettering--  _Binky’s Flower Shop._ The display windows were plastered with stickers of daisies and a small sign beckoned, _come on in,_ in green cursive.

_How cute!_

Miyo pushed through the glass door, beautifully outlined with copper wire, and a set of brass bells chimed her entrance, alerting the room to her presence. Inside the shop smelled wonderful, swirling fragrances of nature playing heavily in the air. She wanted to live there, among the colourful flowers. In her next life, she would open a flower shop.

“Welcome to Binky’s!” A cheerful Alpha called out from behind the counter, adjusting her cream apron over her fit body. "What can we get for you on this fine afternoon!"  

She was a beautiful woman, tanned with long blonde hair-- Miyo would do anything to have her fit, curvaceous figure. No matter how much or how hard she worked out, her Omega body remained small and delicate.

“Hi! I’m looking for…” She started, glancing around the shop. She had come for roses, but there were so many choices. The chartreuse walls housed every kind of flower imaginable, even ones she had never seen before.

“Unsure of what you want?” The Alpha woman asked with a toothy smile and Miyo noticed from her scent that she was mated.

“Well…” She started, becoming increasingly overwhelmed with her options. “My darling friend is getting released from the hospital this evening. Thought I might surprise him with...with something floral-like!”

_Could she buy every single flower...could she buy the store?_

“Oh my!” The blonde woman exclaimed with wide eyes, shaking her head with indignation. “What happened? I mean, we get so many customers from the O.C Hospital. It's atrocious...”

“Oh…” Miyo murmured, surprised with the genuine tone of concern behind the woman's words. “He was...well, he was attacked by Alphas...” She whispered, hoping that her honesty wouldn't offend the woman.

Thankfully, the woman shook her head in disgust, just the reaction that Miyo had hoped for. “So _uncivilized_. Is he going to be okay? I’m so sorry that happened. Truly.”  

Miyo was moved by the woman’s kindness, she could feel its ingenuity from the scent. She was one of the good Alphas, and there weren’t exactly a whole lot of them to go around. Female Alphas could sometimes be even more violent than their male counterparts, particularly towards female Omegas-- but this one, _Binky perhaps?_ She had been raised right.

“He’ll be fine! He's a tough cookie,” Miyo replied sweetly, waving her hands in front of her to diffuse some of the tension. “He's being released this evening, thank goodness.”

“Ah,” Binky nodded in understanding, her scent still unhappy from the previous mention of Alpha violence. “Hence the flowers.”

“Mmm…” Miyo furrowed her brows and looked around at the wares once more. “Roses are so cliche...he likes sunflowers? But they don't smell like anything, right? It seems like a waste.”

“Well!” The blonde woman exclaimed loudly, starling Miyo from her absentminded browsing. “On behalf of all Alphas, let me make you a bundle of my best, most exotic flowers. On the house!” She sang before turning swiftly on her heels to walk into the back room of flowers behind the counter.

“Oh! You don’t have to do that!” Miyo leaned over the marble slab, frantically calling into the doorway. “Really!”  

“Of course I do!” The shopkeeper replied, waving a hand over her shoulder as she clipped a few flowers at her workbench.  “Just give me a few minutes, I want to make sure the arrangement is perfect!”

Miyo sighed in defeat, accepting the kindness of the Alpha stranger, and walked closer to the door to admire the expansive orchid collection-- her favorite breed of flower. As she read out the information on a particularly beautiful violet one, the door bells chimed once more.

“Welcome to Binky’s!” She heard the shop keep call out from the back room. “I’ll be with you a few minutes! Have a look around!"

Miyo smiled at Binky's happy tone, then a familiar scent snaked in between the shelves of flowers and she immediately recoiled. It hit her nose, assaulting her with its intense masculinity-- its owner was not someone she ever wished to see again. Not in a million years.

_Not if they were the last two people on earth._

“Oh my God!" The scent's owner exclaimed as he quickly rounded the shelves to tower over her. "Miyo...wow. What a coincidence.”

 _Sonny_. Her personal monster. Her exmate. His overbearing fragrance formed a lump of bile in her throat and she stayed her shaking hands at her sides-- angry that her traitorous body still held an attraction for him.

“What are you doing here?” She seethed, backing further into the maze of flowers, not wanting him anywhere near her.

It was already bad enough that she still _smelled_ like him. _Why on earth had fate brought the motherfucker here. Why._

“Woah...hostile,” Sonny replied defensively, putting his hands up as if to signify that he meant no harm-- Miyo knew better. “I live just around the corner...I thought I smelled you lurking around here, so I wanted to check it out. You know, I had to find a new place after _you_ kicked me out.”

Miyo winced at his piercing statement. It hadn't exactly been _easy_ to get him out of her house--  _her house, not his._ In fact, he had become so violent when she presented him with divorce papers that she was lucky to escape with just a few broken ribs. And a rather nasty black eye. _That_ had been fun to explain to her students.

_It was a good thing she knew a few sympathetic Alpha lawyers...otherwise she would have been stuck with the damn monster._

“You're clearly not happy to see me...” Her exmate complained, playful, but there was a threatening undertone in his voice that had Miyo shivering with unwanted dread.  Sonny ignored her upset scent and stuck his head between the orchids to look at her, his green eyes primal. _Hostile._ “My, my, you are _still_ an absolute knockout!” He whistled, giving her a salacious wink. “Too bad you're mine for all eternity, eh?”

“Nope. Not really happy to see you,” Miyo declared plainly, ignoring the backhanded compliment-- and his stabbing remark at her decision to mate with him in the first place. _What the fuck had she seen in him in the first place?_

She held her ground as he moved in closer, unwilling to let him bully her into submission. If she didn't have a heart of steel, she wouldn't have made it this far in her professional life-- certainly not as an Omega. She could handle one dumb, overeager Alpha. She had to.

The silence between them was cutting, but Miyo refused to relinquish. Then, the door chimed once more, briefly tearing her gaze away from Sonny. “Miyo?” A second, familiar voice called out, deep tone carrying over the various flowers.

She hazarded a glace towards the front entrance, ignoring the domineering figure in front of her, and noticed a blonde head, sticking out above the shelves.

 _Ukai_. _Shit...shit!_

Admittedly, she was relieved that the Alpha professor had arrived, but it was quickly replaced with a deep seated dread. While she was happy to have some potential support against her exmate, she was still unwilling to get Ukai involved in her problems. He had already done enough for her and her nest. When it came to her own, personal matters, she had always been able to handle herself, and her ex, just fine.

Ukai rounded the tall shelves, his blonde head bobbing above the orchids. Then, he stepped in behind Sonny, broad shoulders suddenly bristling with hot anger. “Can I help you?” He growled and placed a large hand on Sonny's tense shoulder, threatening her exmate with a fresh and dominant scent.

Sonny snapped around at the touch and snarled, baring white teeth. Miyo took advantage of the man's distraction and briskly shuffled out her flower barricade to stand next to Ukai. “Who the fuck are you?” Sonny barked in question and shrugged off Ukai’s heavy grip. “You need something, _buddy?”_

Miyo noticed Ukai's lips curl back, almost in a snarl, but he quickly caught himself and remained poised. “A friend of Miyo’s,” he replied in a hostile, challenging tone. “Who you’re making very uncomfortable.”

“Well," Sonny regarded, dark eyes fixed on Ukai, intense and angry. _"Friend of Miyo’s,_  she and I are trying to have a conversation. So you can fuck right off.”

Ukai's throat rumbled and Miyo felt a warm bubble of relief burst inside of her chest-- she hadn't felt this type of Alpha protection in a long time. It was foreign to her now. “Oh, really?” Ukai remarked, raising a challenging eyebrow.

“Yeah, really,” Sonny said through gritted teeth.

As Sonny's prolific scent poured out, Miyo felt her own mated fragrance increase. She did her best to combat it, but it was too instinctively entwined with her own-- her efforts did nothing to quell it. She absolutely detested that her own Omega scent still reacted to Sonny's presence. She hated herself for mating with the bastard in the first place. He was a lowlife, a deadbeat.

_What the fuck had she been thinking? Curse her, for always taking in fixer uppers._

“No," she interjected the growling Alphas and took a confident step forward, pointing a blue nail into her exmate's tense face. "We aren’t aren’t having a conversation. We were _done_ having conversations three months ago. _We_ are done. What do you not understand about that? We. Are. Done.”

Ukai’s large hand landed on her shoulder, protectively supporting her from behind, and she glanced back, astonished by his actions. She and Sonny were _mated_. She loathed it, but it was the truth. When she had left the relationship, she had pretty well accepted that she would spend the rest of her life in solitude. A lonely, bitter old maid for all eternity. _Yes,_ ballsy Alphas were known to approach Omegas that were permanently scented. So, Ukai was ballsy. Was he crazy enough to claim property that wasn't his? Now, Miyo wasn't so sure of the answer. Here was Ukai, obviously aware that she and the Alpha before them were mated, but ignoring it. He was willingly touching her-- putting his hands on an Omega that wasn't his... _in front of her mate._

It was as if he was challenging Sonny-- contesting his _ownership_ of her.

_Taunting her ex? Why?_

“You heard the lady. Get the fuck out of here,” Ukai snarled over her shoulder, moving close to her body from behind. So close, that she would feel the angry heat radiating off of his tanned skin. His protective scent engulfed her with its invigorating nature-- calm, yet resolute. She breathed it in to steady her own conviction.

Sonny snarled viciously at Ukai's audacity, at the unapologetic touching of his mate.

 _Ukai was much too close to her...it was going to cause a fight...it was going to pull Ukai into her business. She couldn't do that to the Alpha professor, it wouldn't be right._ At that tragic thought, Miyo took a small step back, away from the two Alphas, away from Ukai.

A high pitched roar burst into the air and Miyo slightly flinched at the rage behind it. “OI! ARE THESE BOYS GIVING YOU TROUBLE?”

Miyo snapped her neck towards the sound, watching with astonished eyes as the female shop keep hopped over the front counter with ease, crossed the room in a few swift strides and, pulled Miyo in behind her. She released a possessive scent that blanketed the room, alerting the two men that Miyo was not up for grabs.

_Could...could Binky tell that she was no longer with Sonny? Was she that sensitive to emotions...to know that they weren't formally together anymore? Did she willingly ignore the mated scent and intervene? It made no sense!_

“Do I need to kick these fuckers out?” Binky asked quietly, snarling at the men before her, showing her white teeth in challenge.

“J-just the brunette,” Miyo stuttered out, completely stunned by the entire affair.

“Get out,” the blonde woman growled without missing a beat, jerking her head towards the door.

“Really? Seriously.” Sonny barked, his throat rumbling in angry hesitation-- worried that two strong Alphas were in a sudden coalition, ready and waiting to attack him if he made a move they didn’t consent to.

“Yes. Leave.” Ukai spat out, snarling in unison with the female Alpha at his side.

Sonny flashed Miyo a nasty look and leaned in close to her face. Ukai stiffened at the move and the blonde women let out a threatening growl, upset with his breach of territory. “This isn’t over Miyo. Not by a long shot,” he seethed into her face, but she refused to flinch at the ominous warning.

She wasn't afraid of him. She hadn't been afraid of him in a long time. Not since she had left him.

With that final, threatening statement, Sonny straightened up to full height and pushed past Ukai, bumping shoulders as he did so. Without another word or glance, he exited the shop, slamming the door behind him-- the copper bells ringing out his anger.

Miyo let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in as the door rattled through the now silent room. She was grateful when Sonny's scent began to quickly dissipate among the fragrant flowers. It was an atrocious fragrance, salty and masculine, and she was forced to carry it with her at all times-- she didn't want it to be any stronger than it had to be. Thankfully, with Sonny gone, it would mellow out, back to its usual form.

“Good riddance,” Binky chirped, wiping her hands in front of her as if to rid herself of Sonny’s filth. “What a piece of work he is. It's a good thing you've got such a strong Alpha watching over you!” She continued, granting Miyo with a sly wink.

“Um…” Miyo tried to reply, but faltered, blushing at the forward remark. “Yeah, he _is_ a piece of work. I definitely made some shitty mistakes in my youth! That god I'm smarter now."

“What a piece of shit,” Ukai growled, completely ignorant of her and Binky's exchange. He stood bristling, eyeing down the front door with dark, nearly feral eyes. “I'm going to make sure the fucker isn't loitering around outside,” he barked, to no one in particular, and swiftly exited the shop.

Miyo blinked slowly, watching the Alpha professor stride towards the door. She could smell his agitation, it swirled into her nostrils when he passed by her stunned form. She couldn't, for the life of her, come to a solid conclusion that explained his attitude. He hadn't reacted to Sonny, to her mate, in the way that most other Alphas would have. He was...defensive of her. Almost...protective. As if he felt that she was his.

 _No. No, stop thinking like that, Miyo!_  She cursed under her breath, then internally reiterated her truths. _She and Ukai were friends, but friendship would not hold out against mated scents. Everything that had just happened, Ukai's protective and domineering fragrance over her, it was a fluke._

“Well! Would you look at that!” The female Alpha exclaimed, swatting Miyo playfully on the shoulder. Miyo glanced up at the woman, brows furrowed. “He most _certainly_ wants to scent you!” Binky continued, shuffling on her feet, energized by the recent conflict.

Miyo stiffened at the words-- _wants to...what?_ She had _never_ smelled any level of attraction for her in Ukai's scent. _Not ever! Yes,_ even she had to admit that she found the man devilishly charming, in his own, unpolished sort of way, but they could never be anything more than friends. If only she had met him sooner. The delinquent professor, sympathetic to the Omega cause-- _s_ _he wouldn't mind being tied to him for eternity._

“Hey now!” Binky started up again, sensing the Miyo's mental unrest. “Just because you were mated with that knothead, doesn't mean you're off the market for good.”  

Miyo glanced up at the beautiful woman, confused. “I...I...well…do you know how slim my chances are?” She asserted, unsure of why she felt comfortable enough to express her darkest feelings to a stranger. "I would need to come across an absolutely _mad_ Alpha. And I have standards…”

“Okay girly, listen here,” Binky said sweetly, turning to face her. “I rescented my mate. Yeah, I guess it's uncommon, but it happens! I mean, Juno, my Omega, he was mated with this piece of shit Alpha named Asuno. I mean, as far as Alphas come, he was the worst of the worst. He used to beat my mate and…” She trailed off, vibrating with renewed anger at the recollection.

Miyo could smell the unchecked rage accumulating, darkening the woman's eyes as her feral instincts kicked into gear. She opened her mouth to say something, to change the subject, but was quickly cut short.

“Whatever. Whatever!” Binky conceded, holding her hands up in resignation. She took in a heavy breath, then smiled sweetly. “My point is, when I met Juno, I didn't give _two shits_ that he was mated already. Well, at first I did, but after a while, I sort of stopped caring. Sure, Asuno’s scent made me sick to my stomach, like, sometimes, even being next to Juno made me want to vomit! But that didn't stop me. I mean, it took some time and some sweet talking on my part, but eventually, I gained his trust, and the rest is history!”

Miyo frowned. “Was...was Asuno’s scent gone after you...scented your Omega? It takes more than that, right?” Unwarranted hope had prompted her to ask the question, but she already knew the answer.

_Why was she still entertaining that idea of her and Ukai being together? She needed to stop._

The shopkeeper smiled, sullen, and shook her head. “No. I wish it had been that easy.” When Miyo noticeably slumped, Binky embraced her warmly and guided her over to the counter. “Once we slept together...I mean...when Juno was in heat, then I replaced it. It took a few cycles to fully get rid of it completely, Asuno had a fucking dominant scent, but I didn't care. It was...exhilarating...forcing it out with my own! Juno was mine, he belongs to me, not to that fucker.” She suddenly cried out in victory, holding Miyo by the shoulders at arms length, reassuring her with her touch. “That blonde guy, that motherfucker nearly went feral at the sight of your mate! I saw it, you saw it, we  _all_ saw it! He’s definitely more dominant that shitty brunette Alpha, I can smell it,” she continued, tapping her nose with a knowing finger. “So just…just...don't give up hope, okay? You don't know what could happen. You won't know until you talk to him.”

 _Don't give up hope_...a small smile flickered across Miyo's face, but she quickly banished it. She wasn't about to allow herself the satisfaction of hope. Asking something so terrible of Ukai was not something she was ever planning on doing. Even if she did _want_ to mate with him, it was still out of the question.  

“Now," Binky said, dragging Miyo towards the register. "Let's get you those flowers!”

**Ukai~**

Ukai was half way to feral. He was in a vengeful mood. Agitated and aggressive. Now, he had a face to put to the disgusting scent that Miyo carried with her, day and night. The instant he had walked into the flower shop, he had smelled her distress. _No...that wasn't right-- he had smelled it from nearly a block away._ It had taken every ounce of will in his being to stomach a sudden onset of nausea when he had placed a hand on Miyo's slight shoulder in front of her mate. However, it had also granted him a massive adrenaline rush.

_Taunting her exmate...it felt...right._

Sonny’s threatening words skittered across his mind, nearly sending him into a wild blaze of fury-- _this isn't over Miyo, not by a long shot._   _Oh, but it was._ He was going to make sure that it was. He was never going to allow the man near _his_ Omega again. _Not ever._

“Hey!” A familiar voice echoed through his dark mind, piercing the flurry of anger, swirling about inside his skull. “Ukai…?”  

He shook his head, unable to clear his instincts away-- they were too loud, screeching and fuming with wild rage.

“Um...are you okay?” Miyo asked softly, from where what he could only imagine was a few feet away.

“I’m fine,” he snarled, crossing his broad arms over his chest in a pout. Her scent was renewing his nausea, driving him mad. He just wanted to smell _her_. Just her, not her mated scent. Not Sonny.

“Okay, well, I wanted to thank you, for what you did in there. I’m sorry you had to get involved...I didn't mean for that to happen the way it did.”

Miyo's tender words faded into nothing, drowned out by his primal instincts. He wanted to punch something, preferably the face of the Alpha fuckboy that had touched her. She was  _his._

 _Wait_ , his conscious mind shot through his screeching feral nature, _what was she apologizing? Why?_ _He had gotten involved because he wanted to...no...because he  had needed to_. As the logical thoughts passed over his mind, his instincts poured back, roaring at him in a flurry of jealous envy. _Mine_. _Not_. _His_. _Keep her safe. Kill Sonny. Scent her. Mate her._ They screeched, like nails on a chalkboard, clouding his conscious mind once more-- it was taking everything he had to not snap in two.

After a few brief moments of struggle, he decided that he was going to have to resign to them, if only for a few hours. They clearly were not going anywhere, he needed to give them time to calm down, in private. He summoned the last vestiges of his conscious mind and gently shuffled Miyo back into the shop, ignoring her verbal interjections as he did so.

“Wait here,” he commanded once they were back inside the quaint confines of the florist's shop. He couldn't look at her, not right now. It would be too painful. He could still smell Sonny’s scent, radiating off her slender figure. If he saw her emerald eyes, he wouldn't be able to keep it together. He would snap and he had no idea what his instincts would do if that came to pass. When Miyo began to verbally protest he hastily added, “please, just give me a second. I can’t...handle myself right now. I know you’ll be safe here. Just wait for me.”

Hoping that the raven Omega would stay put, he strode over to the blonde Alpha behind the counter. “Hey,” he barked, frustrated with his inability keep his anger from his tone.

The blonde Alpha gave him a wicked smirk and leaned onto the counter. “Hey…”

“I need a favor. _Another..._ favor,” he growled, running a large hand through his blonde hair. He was incredible grateful that the woman had sided with him against Sonny, and even more pleased that she had helped prevent the conflict from escalating further. Alphas could be stupid, brawling over any aggressive scent regardless of its nature. _She was a wise Alpha, and they were rare._

“Shoot,” the shop keep commanded, smartly reeling in her scent so that it wouldn’t incite his own vengeful one any further.

“Can you...can you walk Miyo back to the hospital for me. I can’t...be around her right now. I-”

“You’re fucking close to going feral, that’s for sure!” The blonde woman interrupted him with a throaty laugh. Then, her eyes went dark, vicious and calculating. “Even I want to snap that fucker’s neck, and I don’t even know the history.”

Ukai let out a breath of relief at her willingness to help him. He hardly even knew the woman, but her actions spoke for themselves. She was a trustworthy Alpha, he knew it in his bones.

“I will absolutely pay you for the lost business hours…” He growled quietly, not wanting Miyo to hear their plotting.

The blonde shopkeeper waved a hand out in front of her and shook her head. “Fuck no. No need to do that, we close in an hour anyways,” she sang sweetly and hopped over the counter, taking off her cream apron. “And my mate's out of town, so I’m down for a little romp of adventure!”

“I _will_ repay you. I promise,” Ukai added, seeping gratitude alongside his agitated scent.

“EXCUSE ME!” Miyo yelled out from the door in a tone that made him suddenly stiffen. _She was very, very mad._ “ARE YOU MAKING PLANS ABOUT ME, WITHOUT ME?!”

He sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew it was rude to insert himself in Miyo’s life, but he couldn't stop himself. He had recognized that he had an innate desire to keep her safe, and it was too overwhelming for him to fight against. Perhaps, it was clouding his better judgement, but he didn't care.

“Go for a run. Cool off. I’ll handle shit, don’t worry,” Binky said quietly, patting his shoulder before walking over to the irritated Omega by the door.

Ukai nodded and quickly snuck past Miyo’s bristling form to rush out of the shop.

“HEY WHERE ARE Y-” He heard the her shout at him as he closed the door. He ignored her. He needed to get out of there. _Now._

He was going to meet the raven Omega at the hospital, it wasn't even a question, but he needed an hour to get his Alpha emotions under control before seeing her again. Otherwise, he would say something, or do something, that he would regret... _like hunting down Sonny and slitting his throat._ The thought of losing Miyo, which he certainly would if he kept submitting to his instincts, made him want to die. Pang after pang of terror permeated his being and in that moment, as he stood bristling outside the flower shop in the Fukui district, he suddenly realized that he _loved_ the raven Omega. He didn't know why, when, or how it had happened, but it had, and now, he needed to figure out what he was going to do about it.

As he walked down the sidewalk towards the ocean, he mentally promised that he would do everything in his power to keep her safe. Even if she didn’t return his feelings...he would follow her every day for the rest of his life to defend her.


	29. Yellow Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part Four: Cohabitation
> 
> With their injuries healing and old threats on the horizon, the hybrid pack takes some time to bond. Suga and Daichi face a difficult decision, while Oikawa and Hajime learn the importance of communication. Everyone is eager to understand how a nest of Omegas and a team of Alphas developed into a pack of their own, but will new tensions threaten to break up everything they have worked for?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would say that this is a mediocre chapter at best soooooooooo, of course I am going to drop back in to edit it again gahaha. 
> 
> Thanks as always for the sweet comments, they are so f**cking lovely :)
> 
> Cheers

**Part Four: Cohabitation**

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Yellow Roses**

**Yachi~**

As Yachi descended the stairs on Monday morning, happy voices rang out from the main floor and familiar tinges of fragrances whirled into her nostrils. She adored it, feeling safe and secure, regardless of the intrusion a few days earlier-- she knew in her heart that her housemates, both Alpha and Omega, had her back.

“Yaaaaaaaachi! I need your help with the pancakes,” Tanaka called out from the kitchen, smelling her scent.

She strolled into the blue kitchen, rubbing her eyes. Still in her pink pajamas, her bunny slippers slid across the black and white tile as she shuffled towards the bald Alpha, frowning down at the stove.

“You’re doing it wrong. You’re not flipping them on time,” Kuroo barked over his shoulder, his large hands emerged in soapy dish water.

An instant later, Shoyo bounded into the room, plopped a dirty plate on the rooster’s growing dish pile, then leaned over Tanaka’s shoulder to eye down the pan.

“Kuroo’s right. You’re not flipping them on time!”

“Well it’s not exactly easy, okay?! They get stuck!” Tanaka whined, passing the spatula over to the ginger with vigor. “You try it, then, shrimpy!”

Shoyo was a _pretty_ good cook, Yachi knew that for certain from the old cooking schedules during their time in their Omega residence. Her help wouldn't be needed. _..so long as he didnt start a fire._ With that thought in mind, she shuffled over to Kuroo and planted herself next to him. _Wow_ , she pondered, gazing up at his tall stature, _he really was a giant!_ She shuddered, briefly wondering how Kenma managed to sleep with such a large Alpha.

“You, uh, you need some help? Here, I can dry!” She squeaked, grabbing a dish towel from the silver rack by the window. “I don't mind!”

“That’s _so_ thoughtful!” Kuroo replied, glancing down at her with a coy, lopsided grin. “KENMA! YOU’RE LUCKY YACHI IS SO NICE! Not that _you_ were going to help with dish duty anyways...” He suddenly yelled over his shoulder, his voice falling into a quiet mutter.

Yachi flinched back from the abrupt loudness, stumbling into the marble counter on her left. _Lucky, lucky it wasn’t the side with her broken ribs,_ she sighed in relief, _although...they had felt better healed when she tested them out earlier that morning-_ \- only hard impacts seemed to bother them now.

“Not a problem! It would be my pleasure!” She exclaimed, granting the rooster with her best smile.

As she dried the items Kuroo handed her, making casual small talk, various people shuffled in and out of the kitchen. When they at last finished, Tanaka presented her with a somewhat burnt, heart shaped pancake.

“Oh, Tanaka!” She cried, beaming up at him. “It looks great!”

“It looks awful,” Kuroo drawled out from behind her, wiping his wrinkly hands on a fresh dish towel. “You're seriously gonna eat that?”

“Hey! Shut up. Just because you know how to cook…” The bald Alpha muttered, punching the rooster in the shoulder over Yachi's head. _They really were giants…_

She quickly scampered out of the kitchen as their playful banter shifted to a semi-brawl and placed her plate down on the oak table next to Bokuto, eagerly shoving a piece of jelly toast into his mouth.

“Good morning!” He sang with a full mouth, his voice somewhat nasally from his swollen nose.

“Your toast looks good!” Yachi replied with a smile, forcing down a desire to feel her own nose to ensure it was okay.

When she attempted to cut into her hard pancake, she realized that something about the owl boy seemed... _different_ . She sniffed the air as her knife cracked through the burnt batter, clanging onto the white plate beneath. _He smelled off, almost like...Keiji?! Had the two of them…?_

A moment later, she had her answer in the form of Keiji, waltzing in from the backyard, textbook in hand. _Oh_ , she thought to herself with a quiet giggle, _they had definitely slept together. Bokuto was so different from her snarky nestmate, yet, maybe...they fit together? Balanced out each other's strengths and weaknesses…_

Bokuto hurried to shove the remaining bits of toast into his mouth and pushed up from the table. “Ready to go?” He mumbled to Keiji, standing on his right with an amused look on his normally pensive face.

“Chew your food, you’re going to choke,” Keiji droned back, hitting him on the head with his textbook.

“Keijiiiii,” he whined back, holding up his splintered fingers. “You shouldn't hit me! I’m injured!”

Keiji rolled his icy eyes and sighed. “Let’s go, let’s go. Stop complaining. I want to get to the library before lunch.”

“Can’t we just hang out here for--”

“No.”

“But we are--”

“Let's go. You need more study prep than I do.”

“Fiiiiiiine…”

Yachi watched as the pair made their way out the door, enjoying each other's company with some harmless bickering. She smiled down at the table and began the difficult endeavor of eating the hardened pancake before her. When she had nearly cleared the plate, Suga pulled up a chair beside her and gave her a wry, knowing smirk.

“Hey,” he said, lightly bumping her shoulder with his own. “How are you feeling?”

“Hi!” Yachi replied with a squeak, happy to have her sugar momma back from the hospital. “Do you really think that Oikawa will be discharged tonight? I know your text said--”

“Pretty sure!” Suga interrupted her word vomit with a thoughtful laugh. “Listen, Yachi. There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about…”

“Oh?” She questioned, taking another bite of the hard pancake.

“About...Yuji..”

Yachi froze mid-chew, holding her utensils stiffly in her small hands. She _had_ been planning on talking to the Alpha today, but she just wasn’t sure how to bring up her feelings-- or what to even say about them, for that matter.

“I...I could use the advice,” she confessed, her pale cheeks flushing pink in embarrassment. “I'm not sure...I don't know...what to even say…”

“Well, he’s still asleep right now. Upstairs, the room across from the nest,” Suga started, dragging a slender finger across the syrup on her plate and plopping it in his mouth.

 _Yeah..._ she had smelled him the moment she left the nest room earlier, but she had convinced herself that it was merely remnants from the fight with Chaki.

“But, more importantly, what exactly do you want with him?” Suga questioned plainly,  eyeing her down with motherly, chocolate eyes. “Because, if you haven't already noticed, our nest seems to pairing up with these Alpha boys, left and right, with _no_ regard for normal relationship timelines.”

 _T hat_ she had noticed.

“I….” She faltered, trying to find the right words to describe her complex feelings. “I guess...I guess I _like_ him. I mean...I _really_ do. I know you guys don’t want me to take things too fast, but the thing is, when I’m around him, I don't think Ill be able to help myself. I don't know...does that make any sense? I mean, I don’t even know if he likes me back! And if he doesn’t--”

“Okay, shh,” Suga interjected her ramblings once more, ruffling her golden hair. “Daichi and I talked. Yuji, he's a good guy. You brighten up when you're around him, too. I noticed it at the game, but I thought it was a fluke or something. And then I saw you two at the party and, well, you have my blessing...and Oikawa's…and Keiji's,” he finished sweetly, rising up from the table to rejoin Daichi on the turquoise couch.

Yachi was momentarily stunned. _Was that it? No advice?! Just a blessing and Yuji’s location?!_

“You’ll be fine!” Suga called over his shoulder, smelling her panicked fragrance. “The room across from the nest, don't forget!” He added with a sly wink before plopping down on the couch across the room.

 _Oh, cause she was going to forget where Yuji was, very funny_ . She sighed, forcing the last bit of pancake down her throat before shuffling back into the kitchen. Washing her plate at an agonizingly slow pace, trying to stall against her inevitable confrontation with Yuji, she pondered what exactly she was going to say. _What if he didn’t like her back? What if he couldn’t handle her panic attacks or her stupid traumatic history?_ She shook her head, _no, she needed to stop drawing conclusions._

As she dried her dish and placed it in the cupboard, she steadied her conviction, readying herself to find out the answers.

“Hey...Daichi?” She called over to the couch as she exited the kitchen-- suddenly aware of how she could break the ice with Yuji.

“What’s up?” The captain called, looking over his shoulder at her with questioning eyes.

“Could...um...could I, or I guess, could Yuji...could Yuji borrow a shirt and some sweatpants? I know that--”

“Oh, for sure!” Daichi interjected, hiking himself up from the couch. “Bokuto borrowed some of my stuff this morning, too.”

“Oh...great!” Yachi remarked as the Alpha strode towards her, ruffling her golden hair with his large hand.

_Man, him and Suga were definitely the parental figures in the house...ruffling her hair...acting like she was their kid..._

“Here, let's go up to my room and you can pick something out. You have better taste in clothing than he does!”

Yachi nodding and trailed behind the captain up the stairs, growing more nervous with every step.

***

Yuji had been half asleep the entire morning. The bed was a lush haven of comfort and the sunlight catching through the bay window had him acting like a cat-- basking in the warm rays. He lazily glanced over at the alarm clock situated on the white nightstand, _11:33am, he really should get up…_

“Hello…?” A timid voice called from behind the door, startling him to his full senses. _Yachi_.

_Oh god. Shit._

He shot up in a panic then froze in place on the cold hardwood, unsure of what to do. He glanced down at himself, he was naked down to his briefs. _Oh goddammit._

“Um...Yuji? Hello?” Yachi called again, quietly tapping on the door. “Sorry to wake you…”

“Uh..um...just a second!” He yelled back, louder than he intended-- _she just made him so frickin’ nervous._

Frantically searching the room for his clothing, he was quick to find his orange shirt, caked with dry blood. He pulled it over his lean torso in a hurry, careful not to upset his damaged jaw. Jeans, jeans, _where were his jeans? Where were they?!_ He paced, half naked, around the room, eyes darting about. _No time. No time!_ His panicked mind cancelled his quest and he grabbed onto the grey bed sheet, playing tug-o-war against the mattress. After he finally managed to yank it free, he wrapped it around his waist and rushed over to open the door.

“Oh, hey!” He attempted to say smoothly, nearly falling over in his casual attempt to lean against the frame. “What's, uh, what's up? How are you feeling?”

“Um...Hi, are you okay? You’re out of breath…” Yachi replied with furrowed brows, looking up at him with honey colored eyes.

“Oh yeah! I’m totally fine. Just couldn’t, uh, find my pants...” Yuji mumbled out in embarrassment, gesturing at the bed sheet wrapped around his waist.

“Well, good news then!” The small Omega squeaked, flashing him a bright smile that warmed the deepest parts of his soul. “Daichi let me borrow some of his clothes for you!”

Yuji’s heart swelled, she was so _fucking_ considerate.

“Thank you so much! Oh my god, this so perfect,” he exclaimed, taking the pile of cloth from her small hands. “My shirt is torn to hell and I have no idea where my pants are.”

“Oh! N--no problem!” Yachi replied, stuttering as their hands brushed during the exchange. “Glad to help!”

He couldn’t help but admire her pink pajamas, her small figure was swimming in the over-sized fabric. When he accidentally noticed her small breasts pushing against the silk, his cock twitched with anticipation and a mass wave of internal panic set in. _Oh no, oh no, oh no. Think of something else,_ he commanded himself, averting his gaze down to the floorboards.

“Um..I...I like your bunny slippers!” He shouted down at her feet, much, much louder than he intended.

_Why was he always so nervous around her? He never was nervous around women, especially Omegas._

When Yachi jumped back, startled from his abrupt shout, he ground his teeth together, cursing himself. He wanted to slap his forehead, he was losing cool points left and right. _Get. It. Together._

“T--thank you!” She stuttered, adjusting her pajama top along her slender shoulders and he instantly averted his gaze once again, this time opting for the ceiling.

“Sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I guess I’m still tired,” he lied, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to ease his stress.

“Oh, that’s okay!” Yachi replied, hesitantly stepping back towards the door frame. “Um...actually, I was wondering if we could talk about some stuff...if that’s okay?”

 _Talk about things._ He had spent nearly two hours, tossing and turning, trying to think about what he was going to say to her after everything that happened with _Chaki_ . He never _actually_ formed a plan, he just, sort of, bounced around a series of scenarios until he had fallen asleep. Now, smelling her rosy fragrance so close by made his mind fuzzy-- he wanted nothing more than to scent her. He just had _no_ idea how to tell her that...or how she would respond to such a forward remark. They barely knew each other.

“Oh, yeah! Of course,” he said with a nod, trying to hide the panic in his voice. “Do you...uh...wanna come in?”

Yachi gave him a nervous smile and stepped forward. “Sure, yeah. That would be, um, great.”

Yuji moved aside to let her by, subtly inhaling her intoxicating fragrance as she passed. He admired the way she lightly sniffed at the air, he had realized early on that it was her way of ascertaining potential threats. _Smart_ , but he wished with all his heart that she didn't feel the need to do it. _Society was so warped._

“Wow. This room is so bright! I love the natural light,” she sang as she walked over to the bay window on the far wall. “Oh! And you have your own bathroom!”

She was acting like he _already_ lived there-- he wished he did. He was eternally grateful that chance had brought him to this University, to this volleyball team, otherwise he would have never met this flock, or Yachi. At least not under the same conditions. _It was a lucky coincidence...a twist of fate._

“Yeah, it’s pretty wicked,” he agreed, placing the bundle of fresh clothing on the white dresser near the door.

Yachi peeked her head through the bathroom doorway, sniffed, then turned back to face the main room. The sun illuminated her soft face, reflecting off her honey coloured eyes. The yellow walls around them suited her sweet personality, enduring and vibrant. For a brief moment, his mind flickered back to her pajamas, wondering what they would look like off, before he shoved the thought away as another pulse shot through his cock.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” Yachi asked, motioning to the grey sofa across from the bed.

“For sure,” he asserted, moving to sit on the edge of the mattress to face her. When he had the horrible realization that his bed sheet wrap was too tight for him to sit, he leaned awkwardly against the edge, praying that she wouldn't notice his uncomfortable stance.

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes and Yuji diddled his thumbs, wracking his mind for something to say.

“So...um...well yesterday…” Yachi spoke at last and he let out large breath he hadn't realized he was holding. “I wanted to thank you for everything you did. You saved me.”

_No, he had hurt her. He had jumped her, he had been unable to control his instincts..._

“And I know you’re going to get mad at yourself about tackling me, but please forget about it. It wasn’t a big deal, really. You didn’t attack me, not on purpose, anyways. And there was no harm done,” she asserted in half command, as if reading his internal thoughts.

 _She was right._ That was the first thing on his mind and he wasn't about to forgive himself for it, no matter how kind her words were. However, he did force it from his mind, for now-- she had made it quite clear that the issue was to be dropped and he didn't really want to think about it, not right now.

“No need to thank me, Yachi. Seriously, any _decent_ person would have done it,” he said gently in almost a whisper, inhaling her happy fragrance as it pushed into the air around them. He melted into the roses, relaxing back against the mattress behind him.

“Well, I still do thank you…” She whispered, glancing at him with shy, doe-like eyes.

“You’re welcome, then,” Yuji replied, most of his focus on in taking as much of her scent as humanly possible, before it disappeared.

_But...it wasn't disappearing. Not this time..._

“There’s something else…” The small girl added, fear flickering across her soft eyes.

The sudden change made Yuji nervous, his chest constricting into a tight knot of worry. He didn’t like to see her upset, and he liked it even less that he was the one causing it.

“I…” She began, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. “I _like_ you. Not just your scent or your vibrant personality and...you’re attractive...and considerate…” She stated plainly, her voice was quivering as she verbally confessed her confused feelings. “I want to...I was wondering if…”

Yuji rose to his feet and shuffled awkwardly on wrapped legs to the couch across from him. _I like you_ , that was all he had heard, it was all her had needed to hear. He scooped up her small frame and cradled it into his body, drowning into her joyous scent-- grateful that she didn’t shove him away.

“I don’t want to push you. I’m _not Chaki...”_ He said softly as he rocked her, spitting out the last word with contempt. “But, I really, really like you, Yachi. I swear, since the first time I smelled you, at the volleyball game against Date Tech, you've been in my mind, constantly. Fuck, I hated how frightened I made you when we first met. And when...when that fucking _Alpha_ intruded...I figured out why. Why you were so hesitant all the time, with _everything_ . He’s a fucking _monster_ . I want you to know I’m not like that. I would _never_ be like _that_ ,” he finished, holding her tighter against his chest as his instincts pushed out a protective scent with fervor.

_He didn't want anyone to touch her. Hurt her. Never. Never again._

"I know you aren’t…” Yachi whispered, and he nearly lost himself when she began to purr against his chest. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. “I know I might be a bit over-anxious...and sometimes I might have panic attacks...and maybe you’ll get frustrated and not want to be with--”

Stop,” Yuji growled, cutting off her negative train of thought. “I would _never_ leave you over something so stupid.” 

_Never leave her? They hardly knew each other! Did it matter…? ‘I knew from the first time I smelled him.’ That’s what Daichi had said about Suga._ In that moment, Yuji had come to realize that he felt the exact same thing, with Yachi. Her scent was _too_  perfect. He couldn't get her out of his mind-- he wasn't sure he would _ever_ be able to. _He didn't want to._

“I...uh...I mean, if you want to be together that is…” He added in as a fail safe, silently praying for the universe to make her answer a yes.

He didn’t want to release her. She scent was his lifeline, if she cut him off now, he was certain that he would die.

“I do...want to be together...I mean. Here, put me down,” Yachi said gently and he reluctantly set her down on the hardwood. “Sit,” she continued, patting the grey sofa with a small hand.

As he awkwardly leaned in to take a seat, he watched as she hiked up her large pajama pants, then straddled his lap. She cupped his face, looking into his chocolate eyes and he held her gaze, both unable and unwilling to look away. Then, she gave him a timid smile before kissing him with soft lips, her hands gingerly sweeping across his damaged jaw to grasp at the back of his neck. His entire body melted into her touch and he returned the gesture with vigor, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist, but the more he explored her mouth, the less control he retained.

“Yachi…” He snarled, pulling away with hasty frustration. “Even though I’d _love_ to keep going, we need to stop. Like now.”

Yachi sat back on his thighs and bit her swollen lip, nodding in understanding.

“How about you get dressed and meet me downstairs? There's some leftover pancake batter...I'll make you some? They should be soft enough for you to eat,” she asserted, flashing him with a caring smile as she gracefully pushed off of his lap and adjusted her silk pajamas on her hips.

Yuji rose to his feet up and leaned down to give her another kiss. He wanted more, wanted all of her, but he needed to take things slow-- he needed to prove to her that he was different.

“That sounds _awesome_ , but first, I'm scenting you,” he growled, scooping her up in his arms once more to rub her golden hair against his neck.

He had been dying to do it since the first moment he smelled her rosy fragrance, and while he was going to take his time sleeping with her, scenting her was _not_ up for debate. Not with her unprotected life on the line in such a twisted world.

 


	30. Instinctual Desire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, just wanted to give y'all a heads up that chapter updates are going to slow down from here on out. Everything I've written after chapter thirty is less linear, so it's going to take a lot more editing on my part to make it actually make sense. 
> 
> Buuuuuut, I'll still do my best to get it out fast!
> 
> Thanks for reading, and the comments! Seriously, they are so gracious and lovely :)

**Chapter Thirty: Instinctual Desire**

**Daichi~**

Sitting next to Suga, nestled into the plush couch beside his Omega, had Daichi in his own, personal heaven. While the unpleasant event a few nights past had left many physical scars, it failed to destroy the semblance of peace they had worked to hard to build in their yellow house. In fact, it seemed to have amplified it, not hindered it.

Bokuto’s nose was still packed with cotton padding, but the swelling had gone down immensely and he had successfully earned a spot in their odd, hybrid pack--  _ now that he and Keiji had done the deed.  _ Tobio’s arm was,  _ admittedly _ , in near ruins, but this morning he was in unusually pleasant mood, especially towards Shoyo. The two boys were loudly playing volleyball in the backyard under the early afternoon sun.  _ Well, _ Daichi thought to himself with a sly chuckle,  _ Shoyo was playing, Tobio was more...coaching...aggressively coaching _ \--  _ the only way he knew how to show affection. _

“Hey…” Suga chimed in softly with a bump to Daichi’s shoulder, indicating behind them with a jerk of his head. “Look…”

Daichi craned his neck back over the edge of the couch, gazing at the upside down scene. Yuji was beaming, not his usual, quirky up-to-no-good smile, but a genuine, playful schoolgirl grin. At his side, Yachi was vigorously chatting at his side, something about pancakes and chocolate chips.

“Smell…” Suga commanded softly, a small smirk plastered on his slender face. “Can you smell the difference?”

Daichi hesitantly sniffed the air, then rolled his neck back to glance at the silver Omega beside him. “Wow, quick work,” he replied, raising a knowing eyebrow. “You okay with that?”

“Mmm,” Suga pondered, eyes fixed on the images playing on the television in front of them. “Yeah, I’m fine with it.”

“Oh?”

“What do you mean, oh? They have my blessing.”

“Were you not worrying about this just a few hours ago? Something about...the domino effect?”

“That was then. This is now.”

“Annnnd the difference is?”

“Daichi!” Suga exclaimed, playfully smacking him on the shoulder with wide, honey coloured eyes. “Stop hassling me!”

“I’m just saying…” He asserted with a smug grin, clicking the remote to forward through the commercials. “I like to know what’s going on in that giant brain of yours.”

“Well,” Suga said softly, leaning his silver head down on Daichi’s broad shoulder. “That was before I saw how... _ happy  _ they are. Yachi and Keiji, I mean. Plus, I’m not their mom. They can do what they want.”

“ _ You _ .  _ You’re  _ not their mom? I’m sorry, but what world are you living in?” Daichi exclaimed, jabbing Suga in the kidney.

“Fine. As I said, they have my blessing. You’ve been a good reference for those Alphas, you’re right, they’re good guys,” the silver Omega giggled, hastily pushing away his prying hands. “Would you stop it?! We have to plan for tonight!”

“Oh,” he said at once, the thought of Oikawa banishing all happy thoughts from his skull. “Yeah...is he for sure getting released tonight?”

“Mmm, so they say. I want to throw another party. We need a do-over, don’t you think?”

Daichi’s brows furrowed at the prospect, unhappy with the idea of another get together so soon-- before he had even had a chance to beef up their security.  _ However, _ he thought to himself with a small sigh,  _ it was important to Suga. It was important to all of them, a show of their strength and solidarity as a group. _

“I can tell you’re not happy about it,” Suga interjected his train of thought, his voice melancholy. “But,  _ Oikawa  _ deserves this. We all do. We just have to be extra careful this time...we’ll get double the booze, so no one leave the house!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Daichi replied, running a large hand over the back of his neck. “I know, and you’re right, Oikawa does deserve it…but, do you think he and Hajime will fucking talk? I mean, I don’t know what exactly happened, but even I can tell that Hajime’s upset about a whole lot more than just the injury…”

“God,” Suga said with an exasperated sigh and sunk down into the turquoise cushions, blowing a silver hair out of his face. “I hope so. Oikawa is...not good at dealing with his feelings, or his past...”

“Well, that makes two of them, then.”

“Yeah, maybe we can give them a little push?”

“How about a giant shove?”

“You know what,” Suga asserted with a beautiful laugh that coating Daichi’s insides with liquid honey. “Whatever works. Maybe, we can just lock them in a room together with some food and water until it all gets sorted? That would do the trick!”

“Mmm,” Daichi murmured, leaning in to kiss the silver Omega’s soft lips. “Now go get your organization on, you’re practically vibrating with excitement.”

“I like planning things.”

“Oh,” Daichi replied, playfully rolling his eyes. “I am  _ well  _ aware.”

**Ukai~**

It had taken Ukai two hours, two hours of pacing, teeth grinding, and growling, to finally regain a grasp on his instincts. By the time he had returned to the hospital, looking for Miyo, he was irritated to find out, from the good-hearted Binky, that she had gone home to gather a few things before picking up Oikawa-- one of them being a shower.  _ How could she just leave,  _ he thought to himself, clenching his fists on his steering wheel as he sped down the block towards her brown bungalow,  _ was she completely oblivious to her dire situation? Sonny was...lurking around, and he had threatened her, threatened her! _

Hastily pulling up to the curb, he pushed out of his car and slammed the door behind him, sniffing the air for even the slightest hint of her exmate.  _ Not in the area, _ he thought as he strode up the familiar cobblestone walkway past the rows of white daisies,  _ good. _

Stopping himself in front of the solid oak door, he knocked heavily on the wood, shifting on his feet in agitation. When it swung open, revealing a freshly bathed Miyo, unharmed,  in a green bathrobe, he let himself relax... _ slightly. _

“Oh,” the raven Omega exclaimed, furrowing her brows in confusion. “Ukai, I thought we were meeting at the hospital?”

“We were. You weren’t there,” he replied, liquid hostility snaking its way into his tone. “So, now I’m here.”

“I can see that,” Miyo nodded with a subtle laugh that swirled her mixed scent into the air around them. “Do you want to come in?”

“Sure.”

“Ooooooookay. Come on in, Mr. Pensive.”

Ukai strode past her, ignoring the quip, and entered the warm home-- focusing all of his attention on sifting through the air for any sign of her ex. Again, he was pleased to find nothing, aside from lingering remains of her mated scent. The warped fragrance in the house riled up his instincts, coiling them around inside his gut like a pit of venomous snakes.

“Are you okay?” He barked at once, turning to face the startled Omega closing the door.

“Um, yes? Are you okay?” Miyo replied, her emerald eyes a foggy mix of empathetic worry. “You seem...upset…”

“I’m fine,” he snapped, wincing slightly at the mindless rage behind his words.

_ He wasn't mad at her. He was...mad at the situation, at his feelings, at his instincts. At everything. _

“Are you still agitated from...the stuff that happened?”

_ Unwilling to even say her exmate’s name...purposefully dancing around the subject. He didn’t like it. Not at all.  _ He was a straightforward man.

“I hate the smell of him,” he growled, eyes darkening with feral instinct. “I fucking hate it. He threatened you, Miyo. For christ’s sakes, and you just leave the hospital, unprotected?!”

“Un--unprotected?!” Miyo exclaimed, her shoulders bristling with new anger. “Excuse me?  _ I’ve  _ been dealing with him just fine on my own,  _ years _ before you came around. Don’t try and pull that shit--”

“ _ Fuck _ , Miyo, just stop. You don’t--”

“I don’t what?! I don’t know how to handle an Alpha? Because I’m a  _ weak  _ little Ome--”

“That’s  _ not _ what I mean and you know it. Don’t you understand that--”

“What I  _ understand _ , professor, is that my relationship with  _ Sonny _ , is none of your busin--”

“Yes, it is!” Ukai snarled, taking a large step forward as Miyo backed herself against the heavy oak door. “You have no idea how fucking  _ crazy  _ he makes me. I smell him on you. His fucking scent...it tarnishes yours! I can’t...I just...it makes me want to…” He continued as he slammed a large fist into the wall next to him, rattling the pictures hanging near the impact.

His muscles tensed up against his shoulders, burning with a crisp intensity that sliced up through his neck and into his skull. He didn’t  _ ask _ to feel this way, he didn’t  _ choose _ it. His instincts, in all their humor, were responsible-- he was merely a passenger, a bystander.

_ Only, that wasn’t the truth.  _ He knew it. _ His conscious mind loved her, too.   _

**Miyo~**

“Yes, it is!” Ukai growled and slammed a large fist into the wall, nearly breaking plaster.  “You have no idea how fucking crazy he makes me. I smell him on you. His fucking scent tarnishes yours! I can’t...I just...it makes me want to…”

Miyo was nearly blown back by his sudden hostile scent, coiling into the air with vengeful fury.

“I’m sorry…” She whispered, suddenly ashamed by his words. “Really…”

She was... _ disgusted  _ with herself, extremely unhappy that she smelled... _ so terrible to him-- so terrible that he couldn’t even manage to be around her. _

“Fuck!” The blonde Alpha snarled over his shoulder, hitting a large fist into the wall once more. “Don’t fucking apologize. It’s not your fault. I know I shouldn’t be involved, but if that piece of garbage comes near you again, I’ll...I’ll slice his fucking throat.”

She had never seen Ukai so violent before. He was easy going, almost too relaxed, not an angry Alpha, a slave to his instincts. The furious man before her, his bristling shoulders and white knuckles, was both terrifying and comforting. His scent was weaving into the warm around around her, leaving heavy traces of protection, dominance, and vengeance, all equally prominent in their own right.  _ Why, _ she thought to herself as she shrank back against the front door behind her,  _ why did she have to meet him now. Why not before Sonny-- or, better yet, why had she been stupid enough to mate with her ex in the first place? _

“I’ll...handle it, Ukai. I’ll deal with him so you don't have to keep getting involved,” she said as gently as she could and moved forward, hesitantly touching the Alpha’s stiff shoulder.

_ She was ashamed, ashamed that she had forced him into her mess. Forced him into such an upsetting situation.   _

Ukai whipped around at her soft touch, harshly grabbing her delicate write in his calloused hands. “Keep getting involved?!  _ I’ve _ been fucking involved since the moment I first smelled you!” He snarled into her face as he backed her into the door once more, exuding a powerful fury that blanketed their forms. “I’m losing my  _ fucking  _ mind, Miyo. I’ve been losing it for a long time now. Every time, every _ fucking _ time I smell him on you...thinking about the two of you together...imagining the shit he’s done to you…” He growled out, inches from her pale face, drooling spit onto the tiled floor. “I want to tear his stomach out. Spill his guts...All. Over. The. Pavement.”

With her back forced against the hard oak surface and her wrist held above her head with a grip that would bruise, she felt herself seep out a quiet scent of fear.  _ His eyes...Ukai’s eyes...and his scent...he was mere moments away from devolving into an unchecked, feral rage. _

“I’m sorry…” She whispered, averting her gaze down to her small feet-- unsure of the true source of his anger. “I didn't...I didn't mean to get you involved in this. It was unprofessional of me. I can handle it, on my own, you know I can. I don’t want my scent to keep bothering--”

“STOP FUCKING SAYING THAT!” Ukai snapped, pushing her chin up to gaze into her eyes-- his own a flurry of confusing emotions, darkened by his instincts. “What about this do you not underst--”

“What am I supposed to understand?” Miyo interjected, her voice quivering from confusion, yet rising with renewed anger. “MY very scent upsets you? So  _ fuck  _ off, then. I can handle my--”

“It’s NOT you! It’s  _ him _ . It’s his FUCKING smell that--”

“And there’s NOTHING I can do about it! I’m sorry, but if you think--”

“I WANT to be INVOLVED, MIYO. I want his FUCKING scent off of you!” Ukai snarled, leaning his chest into her own, his face stiff with resentment. “I  _ know  _ there’s nothing you can do, but there’s something  _ we  _ can do. Something I can do.”

Miyo shivered against his hard body, doing her best not to wince away from his intense gaze.  _ He wanted Sonny’s scent gone...wanted to replace it with...his own? _ The sudden prospect gripped her heart with a warm embrace, but she quickly squashed the joyous feeling.  _ He was insane, he had gone mad, the ordeal would be too painful for him. How could she ever accept, or ask, of something so horrible. _

“You don't know what you’re saying,” she pleaded with wide eyes, not wanting him to make a rash decision, not while he was in such a feral state. Sleeping with her, it would make him sick, and mating with her would be levels worse. She had heard the horror stories, she had done the research, he hadn’t. “Do you even understand how hard it would be to--”

“Stop,” Ukai interjected, his tone softening to a low growl that pooled down in her nether regions as he leaned closer, soft lips inches from her own.

“You’re not in your right mind,” she whispered, feeling her knees slowly turn to jelly as his domineering scent curled around her.

“Miyo, stop,” the Alpha reiterated gently, grazing his lips over her cheek. “Just stop, please.”

His tone was gentle, apologetic, even. Miyo’s skin bubbled over in goosebumps of affectionate arousal. She  _ wanted  _ him, granted, she had wanted him for a long while, but it had never been possible.  _ Even now...it wasn’t. _

Ukai’s throat rumbled as he pushed against her mouth in a hasty kiss that momentarily stunned her. After a few minutes of euphoric exploring, she snapped back and gently pushed against his chest, ready to talk him out of it.  

**Ukai~**

“You don't know what you’re saying,” Miyo pleaded to him, meeting his gaze with sad, emerald eyes.

_ Yes he did. _

“Do you know how hard it will be to--”

Ukai was sick of her selfless complaints. Her fragrance had devolved into a frightened, anxious mess and he hated it, almost as much as the mated scent. The closer her got to her, the more physical contact he had with her delicate frame, the more she smelled of Sonny. He banished the sickening fragrance from his nostrils and leaned in to kiss her soft lips, promising himself that he would pull back if she didn’t return the gesture. He  _ just  _ needed her to stop talking, needed to show her just how serious he was about mating with her. She was so caring, almost to a fault, and he absolutely  _ loved  _ that about her. However, in this instance, he needed her to shut it off-- to stop caring about his own well-being more than her own happiness, if only for a moment.

As he explored her mouth, a small voice called out from the deepest recesses of his mind-- maybe,  _ she doesn’t want you at all. That may be true,  _ he pondered with irritation, shoving the fleeting thought away, but he wasn’t going to sit on his feelings any longer. Not after Sonny’s threat, not after his team and her flock had been so violently attacked.

Miyo’s natural fragrance was intoxicating, a powerful and addictive drug that warmed his tense muscles, melting them into a relaxed state.  _ Sonny, _ the venomous scent snaked into his nostrils once more, pooling bile in his throat.  _ Why?  _ Each time he went in to get his fix, he was blown back by a hostile, vomit inducing scent of possession. The more it had happened, the more he desired to replace it-- and this moment was no exception.  _ He needed to smell her, and only her. _

The raven Omega hesitated, gently shoving against his chest with slender hands, then conceded, covering his mouth with passion. He smiled against her lips, overjoyed that his affections weren't misplaced, then returned the gesture with renewed desire. As they tangled against each other, he grabbed her free wrist and pinned it with the other above above her head.

“Ukai…” She panted into his blonde hair as he nibbled up her ear, throat rumbling with arousal-- and nausea. “I don't want you to feel like you have to do this…you...don’t have to do this…”

Ukai shushed her and gingerly pushed her harder against the door, grinding his hardening cock against her hip. He pulled her hands up higher against the oak and grazed his lips down her cheek, rolling his tongue along her collar bones-- doing everything in his power to ignore his churning stomach as he neared her scent glands.

“Please...think about how...hard it will be…” Miyo whispered as she sunk into his grasp, growing more and more aroused from his gentle foreplay. “It’ll...make you...sick. You’ll be...so...ill...”

Ukai groaned as a fresh wave of Sonny’s scent hit his senses. Sighing against the pale skin of her chest, he pulled away to his fully height, keeping her wrists pinned above her head with one hand. He needed her to drop it, he had enough on his plate in the form of her exmate, he didn’t have the spare energy to give to her interjections. He wished that it wasn’t the case, but he had to deal with reality and the most pertinent problem it had placed before him.

“Do you…” He began, his words trailing off as his dark gaze raked over her delicate figure-- taking more than a brief moment to admire her full breasts, rising and falling underneath her disheveled robe. A lustful growl escaped his lips as he forced his gaze back to her forest eyes. “Do you want this. I will stop if you say no,” he growled down at her, commanding an answer. “Your call.”

It was all or nothing at this point. He knew that jumping into another eternal partnership probably wasn’t on the top of her to do list, but she needed to make a decision. He  _ needed  _ her to make a decision, for his own sanity.

“I just don't want you to--”

“Stop thinking about me for once! My mind is made up. I've given it ample thought and I've made my intentions  _ very _ clear,” he snapped, feeling a pang of guilt when she flinched back from his irritated tone. “Do. You. Want. This.” He petitioned, softening his tone yet retaining its demanding nature. “What do  _ you  _ want?”

Miyo held his gaze and he inhaled her rainy fragrance, against his better judgement. He would give anything,  _ anything  _ to have it free from the sickening scent of her exmate-- and he was offering her just that.

“I’m going to say yes...for now,” she whispered after a few moments of contemplation, averting her gaze to the side as she flushed with embarrassment. “I’m not going to discuss something so life changing with you while you’re in this state. It wouldn’t be fair...”

_ Fine. Good enough. For now. _

Ukai dropped her wrists and scooped up her weightless figure in his arms. When she instinctively straddled her legs against his hips, he felt his cock pulse against the confines of his jeans. He pushed her back against the wall for support and hurried to push down her bathrobe. When her full breasts pooled into his dark vision, his mind went fully feral and his sexual scent burst out into the air, covering every inch of the dim hallway. He claimed her lips once more, roughly pulling at her small nipples as she whined into his mouth, clawing at his hair. As she rocked her sex against his abdomen, her mated scent seeped out, snaking into the air to join his own Alpha scent-- making him simultaneously rock hard and sick to his stomach.

_ Ignore the scent. Ignore the scent. _ He repeated his mantra as he swiftly walked into the living room and planted the raven Omega onto the leather couch, licking at her lips as he did so. He was dying to graze his teeth over her scent glands, taste the soft skin of her neck, but he knew better.  _ Stay away from them, Ukai, stay away,  _ he told his instincts-- in more plead than command.  _ Soon, soon she will be all yours. Patience. _

Pulling the the raven haired woman flat against the couch cushions, he tore off his shirt and hastily unbuckled his jeans. Miyo untied the remaining portion of her robe, but he jumped her before she had the chance to push down her lace panties.

“I'm. Sorry,” he snarled into her ear, reaching down to graze his fingers over her firm nipples. “I have to be quick. I can’t. Handle. His. Scent. Much. Longer.”

He would give an arm and a leg to have more time. More time to explore the beautiful Omega, to make her feel unchecked ecstasy, to have her crying out for his touch, for his knot, but his reality prevented it. He couldn’t manage his nausea any long, he needed to knot into her,  _ now _ .

Miyo nodded in understanding, her pale face flushed pink from arousal. He was pleased to see her emerald eyes at least somewhat glassy with desire, but he wished that they were fully clouded-- overtaken by sexual instinct.  _ Soon. Soon, she’ll be begging. Soon, the pitiful mated scent will be out of his way.  _

He reached down to her sex, roughly pulled her panties to the side, and lined himself up to penetrate. Miyo spread her legs in acceptance and he thrust into her, exploding in hot pleasure at her tightness, swallowing his rising vomit. He had crossed a line, being inside her angered her mated scent to such a degree that he felt as if he was being strangled by its intensity.  _ No. No, he was doing this, the scent would fuck right off. She was his. _

A series of soft whimpers escaped Miyo’s lips as he pushed his full length inside her warm sex. Through his blurry vision, he took a pink nipple between his teeth, trying to distract himself from her mated fragrance. As she clawed at his back, he forced himself to knot, quickly pulling her up into his arms to bit down on her shoulder-- anything to hurry his orgasm. After a few long minutes of intense struggle against the lump of bile in his throat, he exploded his seed inside the raven Omega. He had never been so grateful to come in his entire life.

He slipped his shrinking member out of her sex, pulled the first bit of fabric he could find from the floor to cover it, and stumbled across the room to the open patio door. He  _ needed  _ fresh air. Air without Sonny’s scent. Unable to keep his footing, he tripped over the plastic door frame, catching himself on the deck before he fell. He gripped the porch railing to steady himself, then keeled over and dry heaved into the grass below. He needed to vomit, needed his head to stop spinning, needed his instincts to stop coiling around in his mind, screeching their profanities at the mated fragrance.

After a few minutes of gasping for air, he slowly straightened up with an audible groan and shuffled back towards the entrance to the living room, stopping just outside the archway. He didn't want to smell the room, he couldn’t-- at this point, even the smallest hint of Sonny’s scent would sent his stomach into another fit of churning.  _ Well, _ he thought to himself with a tired chuckle,  _ he had to admit that mating with an Omega was a sure fire way to keep other Alphas from touching them. _

“Are you okay?!” Miyo called over to him, her voice quaking with worry.

“I’m sorry, Miyo. Fuck. Really,” he babbled, irritated with his adverse reaction-- hopefully she was smart enough to not take offence. “It's not you. I swear to christ himself, I would give anything to touch you right now.  _ Anything _ ,” he continued with a growl, running a large hand through his blonde hair in frustration. “It's...not as bad as it looks, I swear.”

He glanced over to the Omega, hoping that she believed his lie, but she raised a knowing eyebrow at his words. The late afternoon sky shone through the deck windows, brightly illuminating her pale figure, still splayed out on the leather couch. She had pulled a plaid blanket over her naked form, much to his disappointment-- he might not be able to touch her... _ but he still wanted to look. _ His  _ kingdom  _ for the ability to hold her, to drown in her rainy, post-sex scent and fall asleep. He couldn’t wait until he could take him time with her, look and feel over every inch of her delicate body. Memorize every freckle.

“You’re a terrible liar, had anybody ever told you that?” The raven Omega called over, granting him a sweet smile that melting his swollen heart. “But, seriously. Don’t apologize, really. Can I get you anything to help? I mean, I could toss you some gravol or...a water bottle?”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’ll be fine,” Ukai asserted, relieved to find his nausea dissipating with each passing breeze. He adjusted the fabric in his hands, his balled up black shirt, against his groin and smirked. “Seriously, don’t sweat it. I chose this, remember?”

“Are you sure?” Miyo questioned and sat up against the back couch cushions, adjusting her cover against her pale skin.

He nodded in answer, leaning casually against the patio door frame as he admired her slender legs from afar.

“I have to go and pick up Oikawa in a couple hours, so I’m going to go and get ready. I assume that you’re too fucked up to be in the closed confines of my car with me, hey?” Miyo counseled with a small smile, fiddling with the edges of her blanket.

“Fuck, yeah, I don’t think I can…” Ukai agreed, trailing off to inhale a gust of summer breeze. “But, I’ve got some work to do, anyways…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I’m building a case against those fuckhead students that attacked our boys, and girl.”

“Good. Maybe they’ll listen to you…” Miyo said with a nod, staring off to the side as she chewed her swollen lip.

“Me?”

“An Alpha…”

“Oh,” Ukai intoned, his gut twisting up with sympathy. “Right…”

“Oh, don’t,” Miyo scoffed, rising to her feet with poise. “You’re a person. I’m a person. One day they’ll listen to both of us, as equals.”

_ Yes, yes they will. He was going to personally make sure of that. _

“Hey,” he called out as the raven Omega turned to leave, flashing her an exaggerated wink. “When’s youuuuuuuur heat? I don’t want to risk smelling for it...”

“Two days,” Mito replied, laughing at his overdone performance of the question. “And we are still going to chat about that,” she reiterated, wagging a long painted nail his way. “I haven’t forgotten, even after the great lay.”

“Yeah, yeah,’ Ukai said, grinning at her admission of his ability in bed--  _ just wait until after we’re mated _ . “I stand by what I said, so, there’s not much to talk about.”

“Of course,” Miyo sighed, but he noticed a small smile flicker over her pink lips. “Well, you have good timing, professor, you almost missed this cycle and then you would’ve had to wait another month. You would have gone mad.”

Ukai was floored.  _ Two days, damn right it was good timing. Finally, some luck at last.   _

 


	31. Loose Lips

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's favourite kind of chapter...a set up one!
> 
> Sorrrrrrrry guys, but I can't just jump right into Oikawa/Hajime without laying some groundwork first.
> 
> Also, side note: I've noted that the formatting of periods and commas is getting messed up when I post, I'm not sure why. I'll fix it when I have some free time!

**Chapter Thirty One: Loose Lips**

**Yachi~**

“Hey, Yachi! Did you let that bugger scent you?!” Yachi heard Bokuto call out from somewhere far off. She glanced up from her to see him running across the front yard towards her, his spiky hair wobbling with each stride.

The multiple bags in his hands alerted her that he and Keiji had received Suga's text for them to hit the General Store. He silver nestmate,  _ ever the planner,  _ had sent texts out earlier that afternoon, handing out various jobs for Oikawa’s  _ welcome home _ shindig. Yachi had been stuck with the task of repainting the railings on the front porch, after Daichi and Asahi had made quick work of fixing the damaged portions a few hours earlier. Hajime, Yuji, and Tobio were out back, repairing the back fence-- after taking extensive pictures of the damage, at professor Ukai's request. She was glad to have an Alpha professor on their side this time around,  _ perhaps then something would actually be done about Chaki and his army of knotheads. _

“Helllooooo, Yaaaachiiiii!” Bokuto called again and she jumped back, nearly spilling her paint can when she noticed his sudden closeness-- standing right in front of her, on the grass behind the white railing.

“You’re damn right she let Yuji scent her!” Shoyo called over from the opposite end of porch, sticking out his tongue in concentration as he painted. “Earlier this morning!”

“Oh my darling Yachi! Is it true?!” The owl cried, throwing his head back dramatically. “What a farce! What an unexpected turn of events! Such a sweet and innocent gal with that--”

“Bokuto, stop teasing her,” Keiji drawled as he walked up to join the boy who Yachi considered to be an aspiring actor. “Yuji’s not a bad guy. You’re being dramatic.”

_ Wasn’t he always dramatic? _

“Yuji’s not a bad...” Bokuto exclaimed with astonished eyes, turning to face the stern Omega at his side. “Yuji’s not a bad guy?! He’s such a little shit! Always borrowing my clothes without asking...chirping my spikes…goofing off at practice…”  

“Your spikes aren't all that great,” Keiji droned, covering his mouth as he yawned. “And the rest of that just sounds like you're talking about yourself.”

Yachi giggled at the pair’s unconventional dynamic. Bokuto certainly raised Keiji’s spirits, even if it didn't seem so to the untrained eye, but she could smell it. Plus, her snarky nestmate definitely helped ground the outlandish owl during his various outbursts.

“K-bear!” Bokuto whined, dropping his bags to grab the amused boy in an embrace. “How could you say such a nasty thing! To me! Your Alpha, your loving partner!”

Keiji attempted to shuffled away, clutching the bags at his side with white knuckles at the seemingly unwanted affection, but Yachi was quick to pick up on his subtle purr as the owl began to scent his dark locks.

“I told you not to call me that,” Keiji said sternly, sighing in defeat against Bokuto's shoulder. “It’s so dumb. It’s the worst name you--”

“I like it!” Yachi interjected with a sweet smile as she finished the last portion of her side of the railing. “It’s cute!”  

“Me too!” Shoyo called out in agreement, bounding towards her with his paint supplies in hand.

She giggled at the white paint streaks across his freckled face,  _ he really was clumsy. _

“Traitors,” Keiji sneered at his nestmates, his throat still rumbling in an affectionate purr. “Both of you. Unforgivable.”

Shoyo shrugged then kissed Yachi on the forehead. “I'm going to clean up and help Suga and Kuroo with the dinner. I want to make sure Tanaka doesn't get anywhere near the food…”

“Yeah, he's a shit cook,”  Bokuto mumbled out from Keiji’s hair, nodding his head with a sly smirk.

“Would you let go,” Keiji huffed out in exasperation, gently pushing out of the owl's tender grasp. “I smell like you, why do you need to scent me more.”

“I like it!”

“I don’t.”

“Liar.”

“I don’t!”

_ How long is Keiji going to keep up the tough guy act _ , Yachi thought to herself, inhaling the boy’s content scent.  _ Actually, who was she kidding? He would keep it up for eternit, poor Bokuto had better get used to it. _

“Fineeee,” Bokuto relinquished, releasing his hold on the Omega. “Buuuuut, you owe me tonight, then. And you’re still a liar.”

Keiji adjusted his navy shirt over his shoulders, then made his way up the porch steps. “Yeah, yeah, fine. Whatever.”

_ He really was a terrible liar… _

Hey, Yachi,” he quietly divulged as he ruffled  her golden hair. “Good for you...with the whole, Yuji thing.”

Yachi smiled at the unexpected remark as she cleaned up her supplies, shaking out her hair.  _ Was it super soft or something? Why did everyone feel the need to touch it? _

_ Good for you...yes, good for her! _ Butterflies skittered across her stomach as a mental image of Yuji flashed in her mind. She felt incredibly lucky to have met him, and even more so that he returned her feelings. Yuji was eccentric and...overwhelming at times, but those were the qualities that she was drawn to. He was her own, personal cheerleader. A very patient one, at that.

“Yachi, you know I'm just giving you a hard time, right?” Bokuto said gently, sheepishly running a large hand through his black and silver hair.

“Oh! I know!” Yachi squeaked and stood up, doing her best to balance all the painting tools in her arms. “I know how guy friends are. Don't worry!”

The owl nodded and gathered up his plastic bags from the grass, then rounded the railing to hop onto the veranda. “Good, cause he’s actually a good guy. Bit of a lady killer...but a good guy. He’ll protect his friends to the end, or die trying,” he affirmed as he opened the front door, holding it open for her with his foot.

Yachi gave him her best smile and entered the house, ready to continue decorating for Oikawa’s anticipated return.

**Suga~**

“Kenma. Don't you know how to set a table? You're not an animal,” Kuroo barked into the dining room at his Omega, lazily setting the table with small hands.

“Kuroo, stop pestering me,” the cat-like boy droned back and shook his head as he yawned. “I'll get it done…”

“Kuroo! Pay attention to the stove!” Suga cried, throwing his dish towel at the rooster's back. “You're going to burn our vegetables!”

“Right, right, sugar momma. I got ya covered, don't fret,” Kuroo replied with a brisk nod, flipping the contents of the sizzling pan.

Suga rolled his eyes and resumed cutting the potatoes in front of him. Steamed carrots, roasted tomatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffed chicken, and for desert, milk bread--  _ Oikawa’s favourite. _ He had put the entire household to work with various repairs and decorations, this time the theme being under the sea. Tanaka was in the main room, lining the windows with turquoise lights, Keiji was overseeing Shoyo and Yachi paint a welcome home banner for the front door, and most of the remaining housemates were in the backyard-- fixing up damage, setting up a makeshift bar, and stringing blue lanterns over the back porch. The only exceptions were Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, who he had sent out to the liquor store with the expressed order to buy triple the alcohol-- nobody was leaving the house tonight, not this time.  _ Oh, and Hajime--  _ the poor Alpha was sulking upstairs in his room and Suga didn’t have the heart to force him to help anymore then he already had. _ Oikawa really needed to have a chat with him...sooner rather than later. His heart couldn’t take much more of the upset... _

“Suga, come look at these lights,” Daichi said, popping his dark head into the kitchen. “We need your okay.”

Suga wiped his wet hands on a dish towel and started towards the back door, gasping when he saw what the Alphas had done-- Daichi plugged in the string and the entire porch lit up, illuminating the table bar against the edge of the house in an aqua hue that slithered across the porch like quiet ocean waves. A ping pong table was situated in the center of the veranda and they had transferred the swing from the front of the house, placing it alongside its counterpart in the back.

“It's  _ perfect _ !” He exclaimed, grabbing the nearest Alpha, Yuji, into a motherly embrace. “Oh my god! He’s going to love this. Love this!” He cried out again, making his rounds to hug every housemate in the vicinity.

“Preeeeeeetty good,” Tanaka chirped as he stepped out onto the porch. “But, my lights inside are better!”

“Oh, whatever. Round of applause to you for doing such a basic job,” Bokuto replied with a coy smirk as Tanaka threw himself at the owl, inciting a playful brawl.

Daichi shuffled over to Suga and wrapped his arms around the his shoulders from behind. “What time are we expecting him again? Seven?” He asked sweetly, gingerly kissing the top of Suga’s silver head.  

“Mmm,” Suga nodded in affirmation, melting into the Alpha’s strong grasp. “This time, things are going to go great…”

“SUGA! The veggies have to go into the oven soon if we want to be on time,  _ and I see here, _ that they're not all chopped?” Kuroo yelled out the kitchen window, wagging a disappointed finger behind the clear glass. “Why are they not all chopped?”

“Ahh!” Suga exclaimed, pushing out of Daichi's affectionate embrace to run for the door. “Could one of you talk guys help the Omegas hang the banner out front? They're almost done with it!” He called over his shoulder, rushing into the house. “Please and thank you!”

“Yup, yup. We got it, Suga!” Someone called in reply as he rounded the corner into the blue kitchen.

He could barely contain his excitement, visibly vibrating as he furiously chopped the colorful vegetables in front of him.  _ This time, the party would go as planned. This time, nothing was going to get in the way. _

**Daichi~**

Waiting for Suga to come back from the hospital was painful, but not as much as his anticipation over Oikawa's return-- _ would he be elated, downtrodden, upset, tense, relieved? Would the party go on as planned without any external threats? Could he let his guard down and drink?  _ The vicious thoughts swirled around his mind as he stood staring out the front window at the setting sun.

“Hey,” he barked out as a familiar car pulled up to the curb,  _ Ukai? _ “I think coach is here…?”

“Whaaaaat?” Tanaka replied, pushing in next to him to peak out the glass at the scene. “Oh,  _ shit _ . Do you think he'll be pissed about the alcohol?! Should we hide it?!”

“Likely no,” Tsukishima drawled out from the couch, eyes fixed on the novel in his lap. “He knows the shit we've been through. He knows Oikawa is coming home tonight. He's not an idiot.”

“Okay, _four-eyes_. Then why do you think he's here?” Kuroo chimed in, raising an eyebrow at the blonde Alpha from his position, leaning against the archway to the kitchen.

“Probably because of that Omega professor,” Tsukishima droned, lazily flipping a page of his book.

“ _ Miyo? _ You think he's here because of her…?” Yamaguchi questioned softly as he slowly mixed the glass punch bowl.

“Yeah,” Kuroo put forth, leaning forward to rest his neck on Kenma’s head. “Why the fuck would he be here because of her? She’s not even here.”

“Haven't you dim wits smelled him at practice lately…” Tsukishima coyly remarked, turning his head to eye down Daichi with yellow eyes. “And she will be here.”

“Wait,  _ that's  _ the lady friend?!  _ Her _ . The one with the scary scent that shrivelled up my balls…” Tanaka exclaimed as he moved to open the front door for their unexpected guest. “Coach! What a pleasant surprise! We aren't having--”

“Tanaka, go get a beer for christ's sakes,” Ukai barked in command as he stepped into the entryway. “I know you have booze, I do not care, I do not have the energy to care right now.”

Daichi sniffed the air, perplexed by Ukai’s obscure scent-- it was an amalgamation of Miyo and another Alpha, one he couldn’t place.  _ Another Alpha? Either, he was having some rowdy threesomes, which was pretty unlikely, or he was trying to remate the Omega professor.  _ He  shuddered, feeling sick at the prospect.  _ Ballsy... _ _ did he have a death wish? _

“Someone get me a beer,” Ukai growled, shoving his shoes off with hostile irritation. “Preferably amber. Where's Hajime's stash? He’ll have the good shit”

“Um,” Daichi started as he sifted through a plastic bag on the uncomfortable red chair, suddenly feeling a pang of sympathy at the mention of Hajime. “Here…”

“Thanks,” his coach growled, cracking the can to take a hearty swig. “Fucking christ the day I’ve had,” he huffed out under his breath, unleashing a fresh wave of hot hostility that had Daichi scrunching up his nose.  

He quickly glanced around the main floor, frustrated to find it completely vacant aside from he and his coach.  _ Bastards, _ he muttered to himself, grabbing his own beer to stay his shaking nerves at Ukai’s upset scent.  _ Cowards, leaving him with an Alpha in this state. They were pansies. All of them. _

“So, uh, coach,” he began, icing his neck with the frosted can. “What's got you all worked up…”

“Nothing,” Ukai replied curtly, polishing of his drink in one hearty swig. “Actually no, you're an adult, fuck it.  _ Miyo _ , Miyo is my problem.”

“Um, why…”

“She's fucking mated, which I’m sure you know,” his coach growled, crushing the empty can with one large hand. “And her mate is a piece of shit. A piece of shit who  _ threatened  _ her, right in front of me.”

“This is professor Miyo we're talking about, right? The one who scared the shit out of all of--”

“Yes, that one. Here,” Ukai barked, grabbing for another can of amber ale. “He fucking threatened her, in public! Who does that? What kind of human…”

“I mean, from what I’ve heard, and seen...” Daichi attempted, ignoring the fresh wave of chills that shot through his body at the thought of Miyo’s terrifying scent. “She seems pretty capable…”  

“Yeah, she _is_ capable, but that doesn’t change the fact that he threatened her right in front of me,” Ukai snorted, setting down his now second empty can on the window sill.

_Jesus_ , Daichi thought as he sipped at his beer, not liking the taste of amber ale, _he had never seen his coach in such a distressed state._

“Fuck, sorry, I’m fine,” Ukai continued, shaking his head in frustration. “I’m here on guard duty, nothing more than that, so don’t get so freaked out about the alcohol. I just want shit to go smoothly, and what student in their right mind attacks a residence with a professor present.”

“Well,” Daichi affirmed, happy to have the extra security-- it checked off at least one of his many boxes of worries he had for the evening. “Thanks, it will definitely--”

“Hey,” his coach interjected, gesturing out the front window with his new beer can. “They’re here.”

He followed Ukai’s tense gaze, eyes landing on Miyo’s black Audi, slowly pulling up to the curb.  _ So they were… _

“Oi!” He shouted out to his absent housemates, chugging his beer in an attempt to stay his nerves, again. “Oikawa’s here, everybody, positions!”

**Oikawa~**

 

Oikawa sluggishly walked up to the yellow house, quivering with nervous energy. He often enjoyed being the centre of attention, but not like this, not out of sympathy.

“It’s going to be fine,” Suga said gently, placing a hand reassuringly on his slender shoulder. “And by the way, we’ve thrown you a party. Thought you should know, since you hate surprises.”

He _did_ hate them, with every willing fiber of his being. Something about the unknown twisted him up inside-- he liked to plan his every action, and surprises had been known to throw wrenches in that simple desire.

“Seriously,” Miyo laughed as they hiked up the porch steps. “Relax, they’re doing this because they  _ love  _ you, not because they feel bad.”

“Stop smelling my scent, professor~” Oikawa said in half-chirp, his pink lips flashing a sly smirk at her ability to vocalize what he was feeling. “Oh, and speaking of scents, you and I are going to have a chat about the change in yours…”

“W-what?!” His professor exclaimed, hastily reaching for the door with painted nails. “Why, Oikawa, I have  _ no  _ idea what you’re even referring to. You  _ poor  _ thing, you must still be feeling the effects of the morphine!”

“That cute facade might work on Suga, but not on me, Miyo. C’mon, you have Ukai written all over you, it’s only a matter of time before Keiji starts asking questions~”

“It doesn’t not work on me,” the silver Omega muttered at his side, furrowing his brows in frustration. "I'm not that gullible."

"I was referring to you as a pushover~~" Oikawa chirped, prodding his silver nestmate playfully in the kidneys.

"I'm no!"

“Fine,” Miyo conceded as she stepped towards the open doorway before them. “The _three_ of us can have a chat about it, later. You're right...Keiji would just nail me to the cross about it...”

“Yes, yes he would~~”

“WELCOME HOME!” Voices rang out the moment Oikawa set foot inside the yellow house. 

He had been expecting it, but he was still taken aback by the loudness, and by the pleasant scent that accompanied it. It smelled like... _ home _ . He raked his gaze over the smiling faces of his roommates, and Ukai, warmth pooling deep inside his gut at their familiarly. Most of them had retained battle wounds, some of which, like Tsukishima’s bruised face and Tobio’s arm, were almost as bad as his own-- that, at the very least, made him feel a _bit_ better.  _ He hadn’t been the only one acting reckless... _

“Oiiiiiiii,” he called out, slipping his red converse in the oaken entryway. “Is there alcohol at this welcome back party?”

“Oikawa, you’ve been home ten seconds and you’re already asking for liquor,” Keiji drawled, jerking his dark head towards the various bottles in the living room to his right.

_ Keiji...standing beside...Bokuto _ ... _suspicious_. Oikawa sniffed the warm air, sifting through the various scents to locate the one belonging to his snarky nestmate.  _ Oh wow, _ he thought with a grin as the fragrance coated his nostrils,  _ quick work, Bokuto, well done. _

“Keijiiiii,” he droned back, raising a knowing eyebrow at his quick discovery. “I’ve been gone forty eight hours, and you’ve already slept with owl boy here~”

“I _wish_ you were still in the hospital,” Keiji seethed back, gnashing his teeth in frustration as he took a slight step away from Bokuto’s triumphant figure.

“Oooooook,” Suga calmly interjected, stepping forward from Oikawa’s side. “We’re all happy to have you back, and this party won’t get rudely interrupted!”

“Yeah,” Tanaka exclaimed, stepping forward to pat him on the shoulder. “Welcome back, shittykawa! I missed your snarky attitude!”

_ Shittykawa...wait, where was Hajime?   _ Oikawa feigned his attention to the conversing figures before him, chocolate eyes quietly searching the main floor for the dark Alpha-- the one person he both wanted, and did not want to run into.

“Hey,” Daichi said, pulling him into a hearty embrace. “Hajime is upstairs in his room. He’s been a shell of himself for a while now...so maybe, you should go and get that sorted before we get this party started?”

_ Oh, come on, he thought to himself with a sigh, now papa Daichi was on his ass about this? Miyo had already given him a lecture, the only person left was… _

“I agree with Daichi, you guys need to deal with this weirdness. It’s not good for anyone.”

_ Suga. _

“Can’t I have a chance to spend some time with my darling roommates first?” He attempted, reaching for a large can of cider from a brown bag on the blue coach.

“No,” Miyo replied, karate chopping his wrist before he could reach his prize. “Go, now. He’s a good kid, you’re a good kid, sort it out so we all can rest easy.”

“Did you all plan this behind my back?” He coyly remarked, casually shrugging his shoulders. “That’s not very kind of you guys to do~~”

“Yes, we did,” Suga affirmed with a smirk that was nowhere near its usual lighthearted sweetness-- he was in full maternal mode. “So, go. Unless you want Daichi and I to lock you in a room with him.”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiine,” Oikawa huffed, turning towards the stairs. They seemed larger than usual, overbearing, leading to a place he had no desire to go.

“We’ll carry on the party without you!” Miyo chimed in as his began his ascent, sucking on her margarita straw. “See you soon, my beautiful chestnut baby! And good luck!”

_ Beautiful chestnut baby, yeah right. They were all in kahoots, all of them.  _ He hadn’t even decided what he was going to  _ say  _ to Hajime, he hadn’t be given enough time to sort out his spiraling thoughts.  _ Well _ , he thought as he swallowed a load of sticky bile,  _ there was no time like the present... _

  
  



	32. A Conflict of Being

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter has been written THrEe TIMeS. It nearly made me go insane. 
> 
> In draft one, Oikawa had a full blown panic attack, but it seemed wrong. Like, he doesn’t seem like the type of character fall *completely* into a victimized mindset, ya feel me?
> 
> In draft two, I tried to pull that shit back and had most of the blame on Hajime, but it didn’t seem to have enough meat to it. I would have had to go back and edit in some stuff in previous chapters to make it work. Plus, Oikawa seems to be the shit disturber in their canon relationship, so.
> 
> And soooooooooo we got his little gem (hopefully), and I am praying that the conflict makes sense. I’ll probably have to go back and add a little bit extra to previous chapters buuuuuuuuuuuuut, whatever.
> 
> Thanks for reading (sorry for the long vent). <33333

**Chapter Thirty Two: A Conflict of Being**

**Hajime~**

Hajime couldn't handle his furious instincts any longer, being around his teammates and their Omega counterparts had driven him into a state of near madness. It wasn't their fault, truly, it was no ones fault but his own-- his inability to control his Alpha inhibitions that had garnished so much trouble for him. While the source of his unchecked instincts was his absolute desire to be near his wounded Omega, the hospital had dismissed him for his inability to control them. He could have coped with that, but Oikawa’s silence? Every text he sent had been left in the dark, every phone call unanswered-- he had no idea why. That fact alone had sent his feral nature into overdrive and it only grew worse after he was alerted, via Keiji’s message, that the chestnut Omega was actually awake. Suddenly, he no longer had an excuse for the unanswered texts and phone calls-- he was being purposefully left in the dark.

“Hey, Hajime,” Oikawa lightly chirped, from behind the oak door of his room-- he had smelled the Omega’s approach, but he was too wrapped up in his own mind to move a muscle. “I'm, uh, entering. So make sure you're decent~”

_Always with the chirps...even now. Why. Why. Why._

“Fancy seeing you here,” the chestnut Omega continued with a nervous smile, lightly closing the door behind him. “How've you been? It's been a while…”

“How the fuck do you think,” he growled in reply, balling his fists at his side as his instincts roared out a series of loud commands.

He wanted nothing more then to wrap Oikawa in his arms, check over his slender body for wounds, and scent his soft hair against his neck-- but, something was... _off_ about the Omega's scent. It was uncertain and almost... _combative_. More so than the usual tough guy facade he so readily played up around others. It’s ambiguous nature had Hajime squirming with renewed anxiety, wrenching forth his instincts to the foreground of his mind. _What was going through his Omega’s mind? Why was he on guard? Has he lost faith in him? In his ability to protect him? Had he found...another…Alpha..._

“That bad, eh?” The chestnut Omega said with a shaky laugh, rubbing the back of his neck in an attempt to alleviate the stress that Hajime’s domineering scent had caused.

“Why wouldn't it be,” Hajime snarled, his eyes darting to the floor at the sight of the pale scar snaking up from under the Omega’s eye.

 _Your fault, your FAULT,_ his instincts roared out, rattling his brain against his skull. _YOU let this happen...unworthy. He will leave you. UNWORTHY._

“Stop looking at it,” Oikawa hotly remarked when he noticed his dark eyes flicker away from his face. “If it bothers you so much, then stop look-”

“No,” he growled, crossing his arms over his chest as he raked his dark gaze over the boy’s pale face once more, challenging the words with action. “Why the fuck would I avoid looking at it, it's my-”

“Don't be all pissy about it, then! Just because I jumped in and attacked Kabuto! Get used to it! I’m not some helpless-”

“THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!? THAT I'M ANGRY WITH YOU FOR ATTACKING KABUTO?!” Hajime roared, punching a fist into the nearest wall. “THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK?”

“WELL, WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK?!” Oikawa challenged back, his quivering voice raising in intensity as he saturated the air with his own anger. “You stand there, seeping out this atrocious scent of rage! Please, _Hajime_ , enlighten me as to what it could possibly mean!”

“Can you turn off the sass for five minutes--”

“No. You should be used to it by now, just like you should be used to me taking care of myself when it comes to-”

“No, stop it! I'm trying to have a fucking civil conversation with you! Can you stop being so passive aggressive?!” Hajime shouted, taking a large step forward, his furious scent bursting forward with him. “For _once_ in your fucking life, can you just--”

“I _knew_ this fucking conversation shouldn't have happened, I fucking knew it!” Oikawa interjected, walking over to the black dresser, near the door. “I told them I needed more time, I fucking told them! But did they listen, no, of course not!” He muttered under his breath as he shuffled through the contents of the drawers.

“What are you doing…” Hajime growled, his scent whirling around, jumping between confusion and rage.

“Getting my stuff.”

Getting his stuff? To leave? _Of course._..Hajime’s instincts rattled around inside his head, vocalizing his deepest fear. _You failed him...you are weak..._

“Why,” he snarled, swiftly crossing the dimly lit room to stand behind the chestnut Omega. “Why the fuck are you getting your stuff.”

“You're mad and I don't want to have this conver-”

“So, that's it then. You're going to leave, just like that,” he snarled in near roar, closing his hand into a crimson fist-- knuckles bleeding from their previous impact with the plaster. “I don't even understand what's going on with you and you're just going to leave.”

“Yes.”

“Oh,” he drawled, rolling his darkening eyes-- he had been angry before, but now, with his feral nature screeching in his brain, he had fully devolved into a state of rage that completed clouded his conscious judgement. “Grow a fucking backbone!” He roared, the words not his own. “Conflict is everywhere. Learn how to-”

“I don't care about the conflict, Hajime! You heard what they said about me, but you’re too fucking feral to even acknowledge it!” Oikawa exploded, snapping around to face him. “We’re too busy arguing about stupid shit that shouldn’t even matter!”

“What? What the fuck are you talking about?!”

“Kabuto, what he said, it's all true. I’m a well-used Omega. I...had my vices...and Kabuto was the one who made sure I had access to them, for a price.”

 _Kabuto. Kabuto. Kabuto._ Hearing the name curdled Hajime's insides, plummeting him into a pool of his worst fears.

“SO WHAT?” He snarled, his instincts guiding every vicious word. “IS THAT SERIOUSLY IT? IS HE WHY YOU HAVEN'T ANSWERED ANY OF MY TEXTS? ANY OF MY PHONE CALLS?”

“YES, OKAY, YES!” Oikawa yelled back, adjusting the bundle of balled up clothing against his chest. “IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR?! YES, I WAS SCARED TO TELL YOU. I WAS SCARED TO TALK ABOUT IT.”

 _Talk about what…?_ Hajime’s conscious mind put forth, but the thought was slammed down by his instincts. _To tell you that he’s leaving you for a stronger Alpha..._

“WHAT, ARE YOU CRAWLING BACK TO THAT FILTH OR SOMETHING?!” He roared, his shoulders bristling as his eyes fully darkened to their feral state. “FINE. GO. GO, THEN!”

“How dare you,” Oikawa remarked, his tone laced with an intensely quiet hostility that freed Hajime from his instinctual mind.

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck._ He should never have said that, he didn’t mean for his insecurities to come barreling forth so readily. _Oikawa was not his father. He was not his father. There was no reason to believe the Omega would cheat. They respected each other, had faith in each other. However...if that was true...they why had Oikawa shut him out? Left him stewing in his emotions in the dark?_

“I guess the things you heard from them really hit home for you, hey,” the chestnut Omega continued, his words pouring out with a hot liquid rage that shrivelled up Hajime's heart into a ball of ice.

“No. I don’t care what they--”

“You think I would crawl back to that fucker? After everything he and his fuckhead friends have done?! I didn't know you thought so little of me.”

_It was a terrible misstep. He had ruined everything with a single, unchecked sentence. He had to fix things._

“Fuck, I didn't mean to say that,” he growled as Oikawa moved towards the door. “I'm sorry, just, wait...just WAIT A SECOND. GIVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN.”

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa was done waiting. He was not emotionally equipped to handle another rejection, especially from someone he had come to cherish so close to his heart. He had fully planned to keep both his drug addiction and sexual endeavors a complete and utter secret from Hajime-- and this was exactly why. People changed their behavior towards him once they found out about his past, they became ashamed of him, ashamed of being around him. His parents had done it, his old friends had as well. The only people who seemed to have the heart to look past it had been his nest-- a nest that he had hoped would extend out to include their new Alpha counterparts, but he was sorely mistaken.

He _was_ ashamed of his behavior, there was no excuse for it, not even his young age. _However, wasn't his own self-hatred enough? Why did other people have to grow ashamed of him, too._ He had hoped that Hajime would understand and respect him, regardless of his past, but his harsh words did nothing but feed into Oikawa’s own self-narrative-- _maybe he truly was a filthy, well-used Omega after all. An Omega that no Alpha could ever want, not as a partner nor as a mate._

“Please,” Hajime growled again, in almost a pleading whine. “I-I didn't mean that, just please, give me a chance to explain.”

Standing like still water in front of the Alpha, Oikawa remained silent, unable to find words for his frantic thoughts. Even when dark eyes implored him to express his tumultuous emotions, he remained stoic, clasping onto the bundle of clothing in his hands as a barrier against the world.

“What I said has nothing to do with you,” Hajime said in near whisper, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Why are you so fucking sensitive about what they said?”

“Answering a question with a question, how very _Hajime_ of you. I thought you were going to explain.”

“I'll explain once you explain.”

 _This was not working,_ Oikawa thought to himself with a small sigh, _one of them was going to have to take a leap of faith...be the bigger person and express their feelings, but it was not going to be him-- not after what he had been accused of._

“That's ridiculous!” He said in an exasperated tone, attempting to push the fuming Alpha into a concession. “You can’t bargain with me. Not after what you said!”

“I already told you that it was a mistake. What more do you want from me?” Hajime retorted, throwing his head back in frustration.

“An explanation, maybe?! You know, like the one you said you were going to give me?!”

“I deserve one from you, too!” The Alpha snarled, closing the small gap between them. “You kept me in the dark, no calls, no fucking texts, not even a fucking letter. Jesus christ! Do you even care about how I felt?!”

_How...how had things become so warped between them? They had spun a web of deception against each other-- drawn their own conclusions in the absence of answers._

“Why are you so mad that I didn’t respond? You know that I need time to myself after shit like this,” Oikawa put forth, nearly shouting the words. He fiddled with the edges of his turquoise shirt, fearing the answer, but he had to change tactics or they would keep running around in circles with no resolution. “Why did you say that? Just, put it fucking plainly so we can be done with this shit.”

The Alpha’s scent was overbearing, frustrated, confused even-- its unusual disposition had him quivering with anxiety. He had promised Hajime that he wouldn’t get involved in the fight with Kabuto, _but how could he have changed the outcome?_ His Alpha, _his_ , had been in a dangerous situation, he had to take action. There was no other option, he would have never forgiven himself had he stayed out of it. If Hajime was angry with his involvement, it added a new level of complexity to his already precarious situation-- Kabuto spilling out his past mistakes was just the surface of their problems.

“Are you done with your frantic self-reflection?” Hajime barked down at him after a few moments of eerie silence. “Can we continue?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Oikawa replied sarcastically with a half-smile, reminded of his Alpha's ability to read his mind so readily. “I am done, _thank_ _you_.”

Look…” The Alpha began, looking into his hazel eyes with vulnerable intensity. “I’m mad because--"

“If it's because I jumped in to fight-”

“I already told you, that's not it! Stop fucking interrupting me!” Hajime growled, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Christ, would you put that shit down?! You're making me nervous,” he continued in rumble, jerking his head at the bundle of articles in Oikawa's shaking hands.

Oikawa smirked, then dropped the clothing to the floor, scattering it in a heavy lump of fabric. “Why didn't you visit me at the hospital?”

“I got kicked out, you already _know_ this. I couldn't control my temper,” Hajime barked, his eyes darting to the mess Oikawa had made in his normally spotless room. “Why didn't you return my phone calls?” He growled, kicking the clothing underneath the bed.

 _Out of sight, out of mind,_ Oikawa thought with a small smirk, _classic Hajime._

“I was nervous,” he stated plainly, his hazel eyes darting off to the side in embarrassment-- _why couldn’t he vocalize his emotions? Had he really isolated them to such a degree that the idea of expressing them made him physically nauseous?_

“Why. Why were you nervous.”

Oikawa unleashed a heavy sigh, then looked up at the smooth ceiling. “Because, Hajime, I didn't want you to know about that shit. I thought it would change your perception of me, and it did! Just look what you accused me of…”

“You think you're the only one with a slutty past?!” Hajime roared, his scent suddenly pushing out with an vexed intensity that had Oikawa shriveling back against the oak door. “Why. The. Fuck. Does. It. Matter.”

“Because I did things that I hate, okay!” Oikawa yelled back, pointing a finger up at the Alpha's tense face. “I wish it never fucking happened! I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t!”

“So get over it! You're dragging in your own problems into our relationship! It has to fucking stop! You're making assumptions on how I’m going to react instead of just trusting me, and letting me react on my own! You’re warping everything to suit this fucking narrative where everyone is ashamed of you!”

_Making assumptions...trusting him...letting him react...warping things to suit his narrative. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The words echoed across his mind, taunting him with their honesty. Everything was his fault. Everything._

“I _love_ you, Oikawa,” Hajime continued with a domineering snarl, taking a large step forward into his personal space. “I can't fucking deal with the thought of you leaving. And for you to think that I would just walk away after hearing that stuff from such pathetic shitheads? It's fucking _cruel_ of you. It’s cruel.”

 _I love you_. Such tender words had never been spoken to him before-- aside from the obligatory ones from his parents and nestmates. He was momentarily taken aback, looking down at his feet in awe and embarrassment. Shame washed over him, not the shame he felt from his past, but a shame at letting his current actions be dictated by it.

“It’s the truth,” Hajime snarled, his feral energy pouring over Oikawa in intense droves of affirmation. “The absolute fucking truth and you need to hear it. I _love_ you, and you’re being cruel to me.”

Oikawa’s shoulders slumped at the words and he remained silent. His heart was pounding against his ribs and his chest constricted, starving him of air. He felt like he was drowning. The world around him blurring away until only a dull feeling of panic remained.

“WOULD YOU LOOK AT ME?” Hajime roared after a few minutes of tense silence. “SAY SOMETHING.”

He flinched back at the volume and complied, hesitantly glancing up to look at the vicious boy standing before him. He lightly sniffed the air, unhappy to find that his own scent had become frantic in his dissociated state. Doing his best to reign it back in, he took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders to loosen his tense muscles.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, the sharp lines of his face hard with his seriousness. “I didn’t...I didn’t know, no, I didn’t think about how my actions would affect you. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Oh, wow, good. So you were listening,” Hajime sarcastically remarked and Oikawa huffed out a puff of frustrated air at the sly chirp.

“If you’re going to keep being passive aggressive-”

“You’re right, I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry,” the Alpha grumbled, sheepishly glancing off to the side. “It’s just, I’m mad, okay? I’m mad that you let me sit and fester with my instincts for two days. You shouldn’t have done that...”

“Okay, while I agree, I should’ve have done that,” Oikawa chirped, wagging a narrow finger in front of him. “It was one day. I was unconscious for the first one, remember? Cut me, at least, a little slack.”

“Fine, one day, then.”

“And for that, I am sorry. It won’t…um...happen again.”

“Why the hesitation,” Hajime put forth, eyeing him down with dark eyes, swirling with confusion.

“Because...I think it would be unfair of me to make that promise. I don’t think I can suddenly conquer this insecurity I have with myself after one conversation,” Oikawa said softly, his words quivering with emotion-- he didn’t like admitting his feelings, but he owed it to Hajime. He owed it to his partner.

“Alright, that’s fair, but next time, if god help us there is a next time, at least send me a fucking text, or I’ll go mad.”

“Deal,” Oikawa nodded with a half-smile. “So, what’s your explanation?”

“What?”

“You know, the explanation for accusing me of crawling back to Kabuto...”

“Oh,” Hajime recalled, brushing the back of his neck with his hand. “I...my dad, he was an Alpha and my mom...my step mom, she was too.”

“Step mom?”

“Yeah, my real mom, she was an Omega…”

“ _Oh_ ,” Oikawa said with a nod, suddenly understanding all of Hajime’s past behavior-- the realization tied everything up with a neat little bow. “Your dad cheated on his partner with your mom…”

  
“Yeah…”

“Okay, well, so we both have commitment issues!” He chirped, giving the Alpha his best smile. “At least we’re aware of it, now, right?”

“I guess…” Hajime murmured, his scent coiling into the air with renewed upset.

“Hey,” Oikawa softly put forth, shoving out his own tranquil fragrance. “I’m...sorry…”

“Nah,” the Alpha replied, shaking his head to regain his senses. “I’m trying this new thing where I stop using the past as an excuse.”

“Oh wow! What a coincidence, so am I!” He exclaimed dramatically, widening his hazel eyes in feigned astonishment. “So...you really don’t care?” He continued, shifting back to a serious tone. “About the things they said about me?”

“Fuck _no_ ,” Hajime snarled, his scent devolving once again at the thought of the intruding Alphas-- what they had done to his Omega. “I don’t care about what they said, we’ve all done shit that we regret, including me. And just so we’re crystal clear, I don’t care that you jumped in to defend me, either. I realized a while ago that it sort of comes with you being my partner. I can’t ask you to suddenly stop being courageous. That would be cruel.”

“Hajime…” Oikawa whispered as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against the Alpha’s broad chest, ignoring the playful chirp. “Thank you...I’m so...sorry...I’m so...sorry…” He sniffed, feeling salty tears pool in his eyes.

For once, he didn't hate himself for crying. He didn’t feel weak, he felt strong-- he had forced himself to vocalize his feelings and insecurities, and his Alpha had received them with open arms.

“Jesus christ,” Hajime growled, pushing him back by his slender shoulders. “Are you fucking crying? I didn’t think you even knew how to--”

“I never cry! Okay! You just, I don’t know, stop talking!” Oikawa whined, lolling his head back dramatically as tears streamed down his pale face. “Stop it!”

“I’ll take it as your way of saying, I love you, too,” Hajime snorted, chuckled under his breath.

“I dooooooo~”

“I know.”

“No, but seriously, I do.”

“I know!”

“I _know_ that you can protect me,” Oikawa whispered, gently hitting his head against Hajime’s chest. “I know your scent can, too. I mean, it’s fucking monstrous, did you know that?”

“I did not.”

“Okay, well it is, but that’s besides the point. Thank you for understanding that I’m not helpless. We could never be together if you couldn’t come to terms with that…but you have, and I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve, I know that now.”

“It’s the truth, I really do not mind your overzealous attitude,” Hajime growled in reply, shrugging his broad shoulders. “Okay, it’s _half_ the truth. I do mind, a bit, but not in the way you’re thinking! I just...I don’t want to see you hurt again. Even the thought of it...right...now...just...”

“It’s not that bad,” Oikawa affirmed, fingers grazing up the white line of his scar. “I mean, it’s _ugly_ , but it’s really not _that_ bad.”

“No...it’s not _ugly_. Somehow, it makes you look even better,” the Alpha replied softly, wiping a stray tear from his puffy face. “Cooler...kind of...badass…”

“Oh, stop,” he huffed, playfully swatting at the outstretched hand. “Stop that~~”

“I mean it! Plus,” Hajime grumbled, glancing up at the roof to hide his flushed face. “It’s, uh, kind of a friendly reminder to do better, you know? Like, protect you…better.”

“You know what I think of when I see it?” Oikawa whispered, cupping the sides of the Alpha’s chiseled jaw. “I think about how we kicked the living shit out of Kabuto~”

“Yeah, _fuck_ that guy,” Hajime replied, then pulled him into a warm embrace, flooding the room with a domineering scent of protection. “Fuck him.”

“Hey…” He murmured into the Alpha’s shoulder, his throat rumbling in a shy purr as he drowned in the familiar fragrance. “So, we’re still on? For the...um...mating?”

When Hajime remained silent at his question, he lightly sniffed the air, sifting through the Alpha’s emotional scent to ascertain his head space. _It was definitely a yes…but...he was not going anywhere near him while he still retained injuries. His Alpha wanted to wait another month...no way was that happening._

“My body has already taken care of that,” he asserted, pulling slightly away to look up at Hajime’s dark eyes.

“How did you...did I say that shit out loud?”

Oikawa laughed at the dumbfounded face looking down at him, a beautifully musical laugh that left Hajime shivering against his body. “Your scent gives you away, sometimes. I’m not a mind reader.”

“What do you mean, your body took care of it?”

“Well…” He said as he pulled out of Hajime’s grip and stepped back, spreading his arms out to the side. “Can’t you smell it? Use your nose, Mr. Alpha~”

Hajime sniffed, then hesitated and furrowed his brows. “Smell...what?” He asked as he gently pulled Oikawa back into his arms, scenting the top of his chestnut hair with fervor.

Oikawa laughed again and nuzzled into the Alpha’s neck. “My heat. My body naturally pushed it back, to cope with my injuries. Oikawa helpful tip number eighteen!”

“That can hardly be considered a tip,” Hajime grumbled, his scent intertwining with Oikawa’s own calm one-- almost as if they had missed each other’s presence.

 _He_ had certainly missed Hajime’s domineering fragrance, unequivocally. The last two days had felt absolutely hollow-- the world had dulled to a lifeless grey.

“You’re right…” Hajime muttered and continued to inhale his fresh fragrance, making up for lost time. “It’s...Sunday? I don’t understand…why did it change.”

“The Omega body is a wonderous thing. Pushes back the heat cycle if the body isn’t physically prepared for it to occur...helpful tip...can I say it? Please?”

“Fine, yes, you can say it.”

“Helpful Oikawa tip number nineteeeeeen~~”

“Eighteen.”

“No, nineteen, I already gave you eighteen.”

Hajime sighed, his body softly quaking in a stifled chuckle. “We should still judge it by ear, though. See how you’re feeling on Saturday before making any permanent plans,” he whispered, tenderly kissing the crown of his head.

“Yeah...about that,” he put forth, smirking into the Alpha’s shirt. “I kind of, told Miyo about our plans...so she made my follow up appointment for Saturday morning. You know, to get the all clear. I hope that’s okay…I know we both like to keep things to ourselves…”

“Are you kidding?” Hajime replied, nuzzled against his neck to inhale his scent glands. “That’s perfect.”

“Okay, good,” he said quietly and leaned his neck to the side, willfully granting his Alpha better access. “I was worried you wanted to keep it private.”

“Everyone already knows. Who cares.”

“You’re right, they alllllll know~~”

“Will you...sleep in here tonight?” Hajime said abruptly, pulling away to look into his hazel eyes. “I know it’s your first night back, so you probably want to sleep with the Omegas. It’s fine if you want that but, I’ve just felt, so empty without you the last two days...”

“Eh, I’ll see them at the party, catch up with them, and I’ll nest with them tomorrow. I’ve felt empty, too. This seems more important right now,” Oikawa replied, melting against Hajime’s strong figure. “Speaking of which, now that we’re finally sorted, we really should go downstairs and join my party,” he continued, playfully sticking out a pink tongue. “I am the guest of honour, after all.”

“Noooooooooo,” Hajime whined out, his scent pouring over Oikawa in droves, blurring his senses to everything else but his Alpha.

“Stop that!” He chirped, attempting to pull away from the embrace to regain his sanity.

“Stop what?”

“Stop doing that!”

“What?!”

“Using your scent to mess with my mind!”

“I’m not!”

“You are!”

“Okay, maybe I am,” Hajime said with a smirk, flicking a stray hair from his face.

“I want to climb into your bed, too, you know,” he chastised, furrowing his brows as he spoke. “But, we can’t be selfish~~”

“Fine, but I want two more minutes,” Hajime grumbled into his chestnut hair, holding him tighter against his chest.

“Okay~~” He happily conceded, finding himself not ready to leave his Alpha’s side-- unsure of if he would _ever_ be ready. “Fine, two more minutes.”


	33. Complex Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hiiiiiiiiiiiii
> 
> Okay so this DIALOGUE HEAVY chapter needs a lil bit of revision, but I'm working morning to night the next few days so I decided to post. 
> 
> :):)

**Chapter Thirty Three: Complex Love**

**Daichi~**

The moment Keiji descended the stairs with a wry smirk on his angular face, Daichi knew that the conversation between Oikawa and Hajime had gone well.

“What happened?! Did they solve everything?!” Suga asked in a hushed whisper as the blue eyed Omega approached. “ _Please_ tell me it did…”

“As well as to be expected,” Keiji replied with a deep yawn, taking his unfinished drink back from Bokuto’s extended hand. “As sorted as you can get between two emotionally unavailable people.”

“Did they smell you?” Suga pushed, quivering slightly with nervous energy. “They didn’t, right?”

“Suga, look who you’re talking to...have a little faith in me.”

“Okay, good. As long as you suppressed your scent then-”

“I did.”

“And you made sure to keep quie-”

“I was.”

“Suga, it’s fine,” Daichi interjected, giving the silver Omega a warm embrace from the side to calm his motherly state. “Stop worrying! Everything is fine.”

“I knoooooow,” Suga replied with a small sigh. “I just don’t want to make things worse. Oikawa would kill us if he found out we sent someone to snoop.”

“Yeah! It would definitely exacerbate things for sure!” Bokuto chimed in with a wicked grin. “Hajime would slaughter us in our sleep.”

_Exacerbate? Was the crass owl boy suddenly carrying a dictionary around? Who the hell taught him that word?_

“Did I use the word _exacerbate_ correctly?” The owl Alpha asked, directing himself to the blue eyed boy at his side.

“Yes, you did.”

 _Oh_ , Daichi thought with a sly chuckle, _of course it was Keiji’s_ . Their constant studying was clearly paying off...he figured the day would never come where Bokuto actually _enjoyed_ studying.

“WHO IS THE NEXT CHALLENGER!?” Kuroo’s deep voice resonated into the air, startling Daichi back from his humorous thoughts. “WHO DARES TO ATTEST FOR OUR THRONE?”

“WE ARE!” Bokuto shouted in reply, dragging a forlorn looking Keiji by the back of the shirt, towards the dining room. “WE'LL TAKE YOU DOWN IN A HEARTBEAT, ROOSTER BOY.”

“I don’t want to play beer pong,” Keiji drawled as he was ushered away against his will. “I’ll get too drunk…”

“We can’t just let Kuroo and his little cat Omega have the throne, K-bear! Something must be done! Now is the time for action!”

“Stop calling me that…”

“K-bear!”

“Stop.”

“K-bear!”

“Stoooooop.”

“They’re cute,” Suga said with a soft giggle before setting his empty glass down near the front door. “I wonder if they’ll mate this month…”

He was wondering when Keiji and Bokuto were going to mate? Daichi was _wondering_ when _they_ were going to mate. _Wasn’t that a more pertinent topic to discuss?_ Suga had consistently succeeded in keeping the idea out of their conversations, and Daichi was nearing his wits end. He had _tried_ to be patient, but he was quickly reaching a plateau. His instincts _needed_ the silver boy to have more protection than his surface level scent allowed for-- and it was only going to get worse. Their household was resuming their usual class schedules over the next few days and he was certain that he wouldn’t be able to control his feral nature while Suga was absent on campus. _There were too many threats, too many things that could go wrong._

“Wellllllll,” Suga yawmed, granting him with a sweet smile. “I’m going to get a drink, now that I can finally relax. Ya want anything?”

“No, I’m fine, I still have half a beer left.”

_Say something. Bring it up. Push him to talk about it._

“Okay,” the silver boy replied with a cheeky thumbs up. “You sure?”

_Say somethingggggg._

“Yeah, I’ll be good for a while…”

_Goddammit, Daichi._

“Okay, I’ll catch you in a bit then, yeah?”

“Sounds good.”

 _Why, why couldn’t he bring himself to vocalize his frustrations? What was he so afraid of? He will leave you_ ...the venomous words trickled into his mind, warping his emotions to their reckless will. _No_ , he thought to himself, shoving the instinctual thoughts away with fury, _Suga wasn’t going to leave him-- he had more than shown himself as a patient and reliable Alpha...right?_ The hesitation began to eat away at him, closing around his heart with an icy chillness that riled up his dark thoughts once more. _Not good enough...he will leave you...why would he mate with someone like you…you he has shown no indication whatsoever._

“Daichi…” A timid voice penetrated his mind, pulling his focus back to the pleasant reality around him. “Are you okay…?”

 _Yamaguchi_. The freckled boy’s face was cast in a deep hue of blue, reflecting down from the hanging lights above them in the entryway.

“Hey, sorry…” Daichi faltered, hurrying to reign in his scent-- frenzied from his internal battle against his instincts. “Yeah, I’m good! I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“About Suga?” Yamaguchi questioned quietly, his disposition was less nervous than usual-- alcohol had eased his apprehension.

Daichi was still unused to the Omega ability of guessing thoughts based on a specific scent and context. It made him feel vulnerable, as if his private mind was on display at all times. _Should he lie?_ The household was small, news would travel fast, especially amongst the flock. That was precisely why he had only discussed his frustrations with Suga with his Alpha teammates. He could think of nothing worse than the silver Omega hearing about his agitation through the grapevine of gossip.

“Sorry…” Yamaguchi said softly, his eyes darting nervously to the side. “I shouldn’t pry…”

“No,” he affirmed, taking a deep breath to steady his frantic mind. “I was, thinking about Suga, I mean.”

“Your scent is pouring out again…”

“Fuck,” he growled out as he consciously pulled it back once more-- why was it so wily today? “It’s been happening more and more, I can’t seem to keep my concentration with it,” he muttered, more to himself than the freckled boy.

“Makes sense,” Yamaguchi asserted with a sudden, unbelievable confidence before taking a long sip from the striped straw in his drink.

 _Makes sense?_ What made sense, he thought to himself with furrowed brows, the statement was so matter of fact-- it did nothing but add another layer of confusion to his perception of the freckled boy. Was he truly shy...or just careful in what he said?

“W-what? What makes sense…” He asked in a hushed tone, glancing over the room to ensure that Suga, and all the other nest members, were out of earshot.

“Well…” Yamaguchi began, shuffling from side to side on his feet. “I mean, you and Suga have been together nearly a month, but like, things seem to be accelerated in this house, so…”

 _So_ , Daichi pondered as he listened intently to the freckled boy beside him, _he and Suga weren’t the only ones trying to piece together the strange happenings in the yellow house._

“It’s probably fair to say that your month is the equivalent of, say, six months of dating? Most Alphas would have snapped by now.”

“Snapped?”

“Like, snapped, you know, lost it.”

“Yamaguchi, I need specifics here,” Daichi said with a sigh, taking a large swig of his beer. “I’m not following.”

“Lost control of their scent when it came to, um, mating,” Yamaguchi put forth with a hesitant smile. “Six months is a long time to hold out on it, Alpha instincts grow impatient…I'm sure you know that better than most at this point...”

_Yeah, they certainly do, and there was nothing he could do to mitigate them-- aside from actually mating, but he had no guarantee that it was even going to happen._

“Do you love him?” Yamaguchi abruptly asked in a shy tone, the straightforward remark catching Daichi off guard.

“Do I--I?” He stuttered in response, outwardly rattled by the bold question. “Um, yes, I do…”

“Does Suga know that?”

“Yes. I’ve told him. More than once...”

The freckled boy sighed in response and looked off to his left with a forlorn expression, or perhaps an anxious one, Daichi couldn't tell.

“He had an ex who _loved_ him too, you know,” He whispered, his tone challenging Daichi’s personal integrity.

“I _love_ him, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t associate my feelings with anyone who has harmed him in the past,” Daichi growled in half-threat, prompting a small whimper to escape the freckled Omega’s throat. “Sorry,” he faltered as pangs of discontent radiated out from his gut. “I didn’t mean to sound so hostile. I just...I know about the ex, I just don’t know any of the details, only that he hurt Suga. And I’m not one to push for information…” He finished sheepishly, praying that Yamaguchi might give him something, _anything_ to help him piece together  _his_ Omega's complex mind.  

“Mmm,” the freckled boy murmured, holding the straw out of his way with a delicate finger to take a sip of his punch. “Yeah, Suga has always been a private person…”

“Private doesn't even begin to cover it~~” A familiar voice interjected, one that Daichi was more than thrilled to here-- for once the shit disturbing Omega was music to his ears, he wouldn’t be afraid to entertain a little helpful gossip. “What are you boys gossiping about?”

“N-nothing!” Yamaguchi exclaimed, green eyes wide, unable to hide his shameful scent.

“Liiiiiar~” Oikawa sang, prodding the freckled boy playfully in the ribs. “Don't you think our poor captain deserves a bone?”

“If you heard what we were talking about, then why did you ask...” Yamaguchi whispered, shifting uncomfortably in place.

“Because I missed making you squirm! Didn’t you miss it!”

“No...and it’s _Suga's_ past...not _ours_ …we don’t have the right to-”

“Oh, cause our sugar momma is going to suddenly express his feelings! He needs a little push, you know that, Yams~~”

“You're just trying to get him back for shuffling you upstairs with Haj-”

“Exactly!” Oikawa interrupted, hushing his freckled nestmate with a flick of his slender hand. “Revenge always tastes _so_ sweet~”

“But-”

“Daichi, why do you think Suga has been hesitant around the dreaded word, _mate_?”

Daichi pondered the question, rolling his dark eyes around in thought-- eternally grateful that Oikawa was providing him with some sort of layout for his twisted situation. _Suga...liked to be his own person...liked to have his freedom..._

“Because…” He began, searching for the best words to vocalize his answer. “Well, he likes his independence. I don’t think he likes the idea of being linked with someone forever...I mean, what if they turn out to be the worst scum in existence?! There is clearly no shortage of fuckhead Alphas and--”

“Okay, woah there big guy. Your scent is becoming agitated...for all the right reasons, so you get some kudos for that,” Oikawa stated, wagging a knowing finger in his direction. “So, what, _besides_ society, could possible lead a young man like our beautiful Suga to feel that way?”

 _His education on mating? No...his experience with Alphas? No...that wasn’t personal enough...his experience with a particular Alpha_ …?

“Um, his ex? Something happened between him and his ex?” Daichi put forth with furrowed brows, polishing off his beer with fervor.

“Ding, ding, ding!”

“But,” he added with an exasperated sigh. “I already _know_ that his ex did some sort of harm to him…that's not exactly helpful to-”

“Be patient, Daichi!” The chestnut Omega chirped in a singsong voice, sloshing his clear drink as he hummed from side to side. “All will be revealed through my integral line of questioning~~”

“Oikawa…” Yamaguchi challenged softly, only to be shushed by his nestmate with another wag of the finger.

“But, _why_ ?” Oikawa continued in question, raising a knowing eyebrow in Daichi's direction. “ _Why_ does he feel that way towards his ex?”

_Why..._

“Because...the fucker never really loved him?” Daichi replied, it was the only conclusion that he could come up with-- having absolutely _no_ information on the Alpha who had done so well to distort Suga’s worldview.

“Correct! But then, why go through the trouble or courting him?”

 _Why? Why would someone, who had no emotional interest in another, go through the painstaking trouble of courting them?_ He wracked every inch of his mind for an answer, finally grateful for a small piece of insight into Suga’s past.

“To...no...for the thrill of sleeping with an Omega in heat?” He said at last, unsure of what the answer truly was-- Alpha sex-drive seemed like a decent place to start. “Because the guy was desperate to find out what is was like?”

“ _Eeeenk_ , incorrect. And you were doing _so_ well. You and I both know that if an Alpha wanted that, they could just _take_ it,” Oikawa chastised, taking a sip of his white wine as Daichi inwardly squirmed at the honest statement. “Think...reproduction.”

_Reproduction…reproduction?! Just what age were they living in..._

“What, to have kids with him?!” He exclaimed with wide eyes of disbelief. “Seriously, is that it?”

“Correct answer! Once again, you are back on track, captain~”

_Yeah...but he wished that he wasn’t._

“Oikawa, he's _never_ going to guess the whole story if you keep giving him this random line of questioning,” a familiar voice joined the fray, one that left him shivering with reminiscent fear. “No offence, Daichi, but Alphas don't exactly have a world of knowledge when it comes to Omegas, not at your age, at least,” Miyo asserted with a sly wink, swirling the contents of her glass.

When the raven haired professor took a step in his direction, he immediately backed towards the door and his instincts shrank away back to the recesses of his mind-- remembering the unusual ability she had shown off a few days early.  

“I knoooow, but Yams was _so_ insistent that I not tell him,” Oikawa whined, staring down his freckled nest mate with hazel eyes.

“Why?” Miyo said with a small hiccup after taking a sip of her margarita. “Who cares? Daichi is a good kid.”

“C _ause it’s Suga's story to tell~”_ Oikawa repeated in his best impression of his freckled friend. “ _We shouldn't get involved.”_

 _“_ Oh, cause _he's going_ suddenly explain everything to Daichi! Yeah right! He’s the king of secret keeping...aside from you.”

“That's what I said! And I am not the king of secrets~”

“I'm leaving...I am officially uninvolved…” Yamaguchi whispered with a sigh, shuffling off to join the housemate gathered around the beer pong table in the dining room.

“Yams~” Miyo called out after the freckled boy with a wry smirk. “You and I need to have a chat later, about a certain four-eyed Alpha?”

At her words, Yamaguchi visibly stiffened, then increased his pace-- looking to escape his professors vocal observation.

 _Holy,_ Daichi thought with wide eyes, _she was just as bad as Oikawa. No, she was Oikawa-- inserting herself in other people’s business...even if it was for the greater good..._

“Don’t you dare let me forget!” She called out again before turning to face Oikawa, a devilish smile plastered on her angular face. “Guess it's just up to us devious _Omegas,_ then. Suga can thank us later.”

“Miyo, my love, we are on the exact same page~~” Oikawa sang out as he danced around on the hardwood. “The exact same pageeeeeeee.”

“What was the guy's name again?”

“Who?”

“Suga's ex?”

“Oh, uh, um, Weston! No...Wesley? Wes, something or other.”

_Weston? What kind of name--_

“Daichi!” Miyo exclaimed, scaring him stiff with the sudden loudness of her voice. “Our darling Suga comes from _fine_ stock. Actually, so do you, Oikawa...and Keiji...and Yamaguchi. That's odd, I never pieced that together before…”

“Shit, me either…” Oikawa pondered, humming under his breath. “Did Suga tell you about the weird pack scent?”

“Yeah, you think it has something to do with it?”

“Maybe…”

“Guys!” Daichi interjected, growing anxious to know just _what the fuck_ the two Omegas were going on about _._ “Can you not leave me in the dark, here? Please?”

“You're right, we started this divulging of secrets, we must see it through to the end!” Miyo chirped with a wink, polishing off her drink in one strong sip.

“That we should~~” Oikawa quipped with a cheeky smile, the lines of his face twisting around the pink lines of his fresh scar.

 _Jesus christ,_ Daichi thought with an exasperated sigh, _and he used to think that the chestnut boy was bad, but Miyo was practically a second version of him. The two of them together took a lot of energy to handle…Suga and Keiji did well to balance them out._

“ _Fine stock_ ,” he repeated, reaching for a fresh can a beer to help him get through the dramatic conversation. “What does that mean?”

“Your parents are both Alphas, correct?” Miyo questioned, covering another hiccup with the back of her delicate hand. “I mean, I _assume_ that they are.”

“Yeah…they are...”

“Okay, and out of all your friends here, your Alpha ones, which ones have siblings that are Omegas?”

“Uh,” Daichi started, sifting through family histories in his head. “None of them...I don't think...”

“And do all of them have double Alpha parents?” She continued and made a scissor motion with her painted fingers to physically illustrate her question.  

“Yeah, all of them, except Asahi…and...Hajime..."

“Fits the narrative pretty well!” Oikawa hummed with a knowing hand on his chin. “Like a glove~~”

_Fits WHAT narrative!_

“Omega children are more likely found when there's an Omega parent involved, or so they say,” the raven omega explained, eyes glistening as if she was revealing a well-kept secret. “Most Alphas would prefer to have an Omega mate. Easier to control, docile, you know, the usual stereotypes. However, that desire is normally outmatched by their want for Alpha offspring, wouldn't you agree?”

With everything he had witnessed from Alphas in the last few weeks, he could attest to the terrible truth.

“Yeah…” He said quietly with a nod, unhappy with the honesty in his statement, he wished more than anything that it wasn’t the case.

“So, there's a _somewhat_ rare occurrence, when an Omega child is born from two Alpha parents, like Suga, and the lovely Oikawa, here. And it has been scientifically proven, if you _believe_ in that sort of thing, that those special Omegas have a higher percentage of birthing Alphas, so they--”

“Essentially marry both desires together~~” Oikawa interjected, finishing off the raven’s sentence with a loud declaration. “They are a _docile_ mate, and they are likely to bear Alpha children.”

“Precisely,” Miyo asserted with a curt nod. “Facts that are hard to come to terms with.”

 _They certainly were. If it was the truth, that this Alpha, Wes , wanted to use his Suga for breeding purposes..._ he wanted to snap some necks to alleviate the sudden tension in his neck.

“I'm sorry, but, you're saying that…” He faltered, his throat rumbling at his sudden understanding.

“Daichi,” Oikawa started, his tone unusually serious. “I know you're not like that. I'm sure that Suga knows it, too. But, he's not going to crack unless…” He faltered, his mouth set in a hard line. “You've got to push him to...face his past…”

Daichi held his dark gaze on the chestnut Omega, barely registering the scar-- Oikawa's outgoing, and sometimes overbearing, personality did well to distract from it.

“Look, Hajime said something to me earlier that really...stuck,” the chestnut boy continued, smiling weakly to hide his discomfort. “Well, the point was that I had to stop using my past as a crutch, because it was affecting _our_ relationship.”

“Mmm,” Miyo hummed, nodding her dark head in agreement. “A valid point.”

“I never would have drawn that conclusion if he hadn't pushed me to talk about it, you know? I think you need to do the same, with Suga.”

“But what if-”

“Daichi, Suga loves you, even if he hasn't exactly said it. Believe me, he does. You've got to trust him,” Oikawa asserted, patting him on the shoulder to comfort his now bristling figure.

“It's not going to be easy,” Miyo added in as she pulled her long hair into a ponytail. “But, it'll be worth it, I promise.”

“Plus,” Oikawa remarked, his tone shifted back to its usual lighthearted disposition. “If he gets in a classic _Suga state_ of irrational thinking, we'l step in for ya, I promise.”

Daichi nodded, knowing that he didn't have another option. He could barely contain his upset and it was, and with this new information, it would be even more difficult. His subconscious instincts were already snaking their way into his conscious scent-- he needed to put a stop to it, even if it meant putting the one thing he held most dear to his heart, on the line.

 


	34. Unwanted Circumstances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helllllllllllllooooo, sorry there's been so much exposition lately...I'm trying to set up the final arc. Things will get spicy and fluffy after the party, I promise!
> 
> As always: beware of grammatical mistakes :)
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Thirty Four: Unwanted Circumstances**

**Ukai~**

With a large can of amber ale in hand, and a sneaky backup beneath his wicker chair, Ukai sat outside on the front porch, contemplating his changing feelings. _Why, after witnessing the terrible attack on the yellow house, had his feelings for Miyo suddenly changed? Sure_ , he had always _admired_ the raven woman, both her delicate beauty and unyielding spirit were beyond appealing, but his feelings had always been spurned by her mated scent. Until their time together at the hospital. When he sat there with his agitated Alpha students, and the whirling smells of Omega sickness, something inside of him had snapped. Suddenly, he found himself _needing_ to mate with her. He no longer cared about her mated status. It was no longer just an entertained idea that filled his daydreams with pleasant inconsequential thoughts. Now, the very notion of Miyo belonging to somebody else, someone like Sonny, left him bristling with icy chills of rage.

She was _his_. _She had always been his, right?_ Ukai didn’t care what it was going to take-- he would cut off his own arm to have his way with her. His instincts commanded it and he was more than willing to comply.

Although their unusual and sudden pairing had satisfied his feral spirit, his conscious mind was plagued with a deep seated fear-- he and the raven Omega barely knew each other. _Had enough time elapsed? Were they rushing into something that would ultimately fail? Would the passion between them fall prey to differences they had yet to find?_

“Knock, knock,” a familiar voice called quietly, rapping on the door frame with the edge of a wine glass. “Ukai? I'm coming out, so plug your nose.”

He craned his neck back, eyes taking in Miyo's breathtaking form-- even more beautiful in his drunken buzz. He took in a short breath then plugged his nostrils, taking a slow sip of beer as he watched her saunter forward, down the front steps of the porch.

“I’m going to stand out in the yard,” she said with a sly wink as her converse lightly grazed over the dewy grass. “This should be far enough away, right?”

“Yeah…” Ukai unhappily replied, his words nasally from his plugged nose. “Should be fine, I guess.”

As he released his nostrils, his throat rumbled out-- agitated with the ridiculous circumstance that had been forced upon them. After sleeping with the raven Omega a few nights prior, her mated scent had grown even stronger in its resolve to keep him away. It burst out with impunity any time he drew within a few feet of her small figure-- and it was quickly lengthening that distance with each passing hour.

 _One more day,_ he thought to himself with a small growl, _just one more day, and she was going to be all his._

“So, it seems like Oikawa and Hajime have worked out their little scuffle,” Miyo coyly remarked, stretching her arms up to the dark sky. “ _Thank_ the heavens for it. Seriously, Oikawa is a pain in the ass to deal with when he's upset!”

“Yeah,” Ukai nodded in agreement, gesturing her with a distant cheers of his beer can. “Hajime is, too. He gets so fucking hostile. You can't even talk to him.”

“It’s match made in heaven, then~~”

“Mmm.”

“Are you okay?” Miyo asked after a few moments of creeping silence-- filled with the sound of evening cicadas. “I know that you've got a lot of on your plate. Want to talk about it?”

“Mmm, I _do_ have a lot going on,” Ukai grumbled, squeezing the can in his large hand. “I’m just frustrated...with a lot of things.”

“I can smell that. You got a list ready for me or what?”

“It's a long list.”

“So? Do we really have to do this little song and dance, _professor?_ Just tell me what's on your mind.”

She was _pushy_ , Ukai had known that from the first moment they met. The woman had been absolutely _adamant_ of her nest’s innocence in the whole, fire incident-- ignoring his skepticism of the story with ease. It was a trait that Ukai was grateful for. Without her unwavering spirit, his Alphas would have never met the Omega nest and he would not have come to know her so personally. At that thought, he let out a small breath of relief. At least he would never had a problem with her outspoken personality-- it was an aspect of her that he greatly admired.  

“I’m worried about the welfare of my students with all of this crappy violence,” he at last relinquished, slumping down in the wicker chair at his terrible thoughts. “And I’m pretty panicked about mating with you, but that’s not against you or anything, I’m just overthinking things. Then there's the case against the intruders. I mean, how the _fuck_ am I going to convince the Disciplinary Committee to take action when they completely ignored a fucking burnt down residence? Oh, and that transitions well into my realization of just how fucked up society is. And the people in it. People like _Sonny..._ ” He finished with a guttural snarl, shifting uncomfortably in his sudden agitation.

“Ah,” Miyo remarked, setting her now empty wine glass down on the paved walkway next to her. “Well, at least the problems with me will be sorted after tomorrow...hopefully.”

 _Oh, hope wasn’t going to he necessary. He was going to mate with her, even if it took every ounce of his life force to do so._ Admittedly though, he was a bit concerned about how well their personalities would fit together after the deed was done, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up. He had only  _barely_ convinced the woman to mate with him in the first place. If he threw any sign of hesitation or fear her way, he knew that she would back out of their agreement in a heartbeat.

_She was too selfless for her own good._

“I can help you with the other stuff, you know,” the raven Omega continued, looking up at the dark sky with a pleasant smile. “I've got your back, and I'm sure that having another professor's testimony would do some good, even if it _is_ from an Omega…”

“Yeah...I’d appreciate that. I just hate that your opinion is going to be marginalized because of...” He grumbled out, trailing off as an unfamiliar fragrance seeping into his open nostrils. “Miyo, come here,” he abruptly barked, hastily rising to his feet at his sudden realization. “Now.”

 _Alphas. Intruders. Four_. He took a large step towards the edge of the veranda, instincts coiling around inside his gut like knives and slicing at his organs. The intruding scents were more than a little curious and they held an intense interest in the inhabitants of the yellow house. An interest that he was not pleased with in the slightest. They were _not_ going to let them take another confident step towards _his_ property. _Not on his watch._

“HEY, MOVE ALONG!” He roared out to the shadowy figures, throwing his half-full can of beer nearly the full length of the lawn to violently illustrate his point. “MOVE. ALONG.”

“YEAH,” Miyo shouted in agreement as she snapped around to face the curious men. Much to his dismay, she had remained out in the yard--  _unprotected_. “THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE HERE, SO LEAVE.”

When the hesitant Alphas remained in place, Ukai continued in a loud snarl. “YOU LOOKING FOR A CHALLENGE?”  His instincts were screeching at him to move forward to guard _his_ Omega. “BY ALL MEANS. COME. AT. ME. SEE WHAT HAPPENS,” he challenged, stepping towards the edge of the porch to do just that. “COME. AT. ME.”

As his furious scent whirled out into the yard, subtle whimpers of resignation reached his waiting ears. The group of Alphas shuffled in place, internally debating their next move, before sluggishly turning to disappear in the dim light.

Ukai was halfway down the front steps, skin crawling with an unbent need to ensure his Omega’s safety, when Miyo interrupted his movements in a frantic voice-- accompanied by a fresh wave of nausea in his stomach as her fragrance reached his senses. “Ukai! Stop. Back up,” she hissed as she scrambled back to lengthen the distance between them. “I can’t reign in my scent any more than it already is, so pull yourself together and slam down those instincts, or you’re going to be sick all over the porch. I’m fine. They’re gone. Relaaaaaax.”

 _Relax. Relax. Relax._ He consciously commanded himself, mentally shoving at his wily feral nature. _Miyo was safe. The unknown Alphas were gone..._

_What if they came back? Threats. There were still more potential threats._

“If _anyone_ else intrudes on our little shindig, I’ll come up onto the porch, okay?” Miyo hastily added, sensing Ukai's failing struggle against his instincts. “I’ll be okay. You’re _five_ feet away from me, not across the world. Also, I’m mated, remember? They probably wouldn’t have any interest in me.”

The verbal declaration of her mated status did nothing to sate Ukai's instincts-- but five feet away. _..he could work with that._ _If something happened, he would be at her side quicker than any other Alpha in the world. Of that he was certain._

 _"_ Fucking fuck,” he snarled as he hesitantly backed up the steps to furiously pace along the wooden floor boards of the porch. “Sonny’s. Fucking. Scent. I want it GONE!”

“It will be! We’ve just got to last a few more hours, okay?” Miyo asserted in a soothing voice that did well to ease his pained insides. _“Okay?”_

For a moment, Ukai said nothing, but then he heard a pleasant sound that rattled warmth down to his bones-- Miyo was purring, and he loved it. He loved it more than he ever though possible, but his joy from the sound quickly faded to irritation. He would like it a lot more if he could experience it with the Omega in his arms.

“Okay,” he grumbled as he ran a large hand through his dyed hair to try and stay his frustration. “Why the fuck are these fuckers showing up anyways?! Did we send out a party flier that I don’t know about?! Are the Omegas not wearing their goddamn patches?! Is there a full moon tonight?!”

“It’s because of the alcohol,” Miyo imparted, craning her neck back to ensure that their unwelcome visitors were indeed gone. “It inhibits our ability to control our scents. You know that,” she chastised, crossing her arms over her small bust. “I mean, the patch can only do so much. Our house probably smells like a hundred Omegas right now. Of course it’s going to lure in some unwanted attention.”

For a brief moment, the Omega's tranquil scent reached forward to comfort him. It was a natural response on her part and she quickly shut it down with impunity. “Is here okay?” She asked, gesturing at the small distance between them. “I don’t want to rile up your instincts any further...”

“Yeah, it’s fine. You’re downwind. But I’d be happier if you were _behind_ me. Not out front. Exposed,” he growled out through gnashed teeth. His feral nature was still screeching for him to close the distance between them-- _to protect her from some unforeseen force._

“Okay, good,” Miyo replied with a small nod, narrowing her eyes at his obvious irritation. “I'm...sorry that my scent affects you so much. I honestly wish that it didn't. I wish that had I met you before everything with Sonny...”

Ukai barely heard the woman's soft, apologetic words. They were distant, as if she was calling at him from the end of a long, dark tunnel.

 _Would she just come up onto the porch? Get off of the unguarded lawn?_ He would much rather deal with the nausea from her mated scent than the nausea he felt from her defenseless position--  _being so exposed to threats. Just...come...near...the…house._

He snapped his dark gaze up to meet Miyo. “Get inside,” he abruptly snarled out. His tone was challenging and his scent was dominant-- every word out of his mouth was being guided by his instincts. “Now. Get inside.”

He wished that he could have stopped his feral nature from uttering out the unwanted command. It had boiled over from his internal stress-- his hatred for Sonny’s scent, the intruding Alphas, and his inability to guard Miyo properly as her Alpha.  

“Excuse me?” Miyo remarked, raising a manicured eyebrow at his sudden, feral words. “I don’t _fucking_ think so. You don’t get to command me.”

 _He knew that._ He _knew_ that, but he couldn’t help his Alpha nature from assuming ownership. His soul understood and respected that she was not his, but his instincts were another story altogether-- they weren’t called _feral_ for nothing. It was a known fact that Alphas maintained little authority over their animalistic nature and, unfortunately, Ukai didn’t have a _Hajime_ caliber of control over his own. There were going to be times when they slipped through his grasp. It was something that Miyo had to make peace with it they were going to make things work.

“I know,” he growled, grinding his teeth together until his jaw jarred. “I _know_ that. You need to...understand that I can’t...control them all the time,” he explained, his mental fight against his feral instincts making the words choppy. “Please, just come inside. Or at least on the porch. I can’t deal with this right now. I’m fighting a losing battle. If you could smell it, you would know.”

Miyo's pale face relaxed and she smiled under her breath. “I _understand_ that there are going to be instances where your instincts are going to take over, and there will be times where I will follow their commands. But not right now, Ukai. Practice makes perfect. Even if you hate it, you’ve got to keep trying. Clearly, I am in no danger right now...and I have no desire to see you sick because of my scent. It’s...it makes me feel terrible about myself...that you can't smell me without wanting to throw up.”

 _Of course it did._ If Ukai's scent left the woman nauseous and vomiting, he wouldn’t want to be anywhere near her-- _wouldn’t want to see the pain he would be unwittingly bestowing upon her._

“I--” He began, pacing over to the far side of the porch to physically shake off his frustration. “Okay, just come up onto the porch, _please?_  I want to make sure the back is clear of any _unwanted_ visitors and I don’t want...I don't want anything to happen while I’m-”

“Good call!" Miyo yelled in interruption and reached to pick up her glass from the pavement. "Okay, you stay out back and I’ll watch the front. Divide and conquer. It'll kill two birds with one stone. We can watch over the lot _and_ keep out scents separate for the time being.”

Ukai snorted. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” he grumbled, sighing deeply at the Omega’s unabashed courage. “I’d rather you not defend the front on your own. What if-”

“Ukai,” Miyo interjected and flashed him a skeptical look, her emerald eyes piercing his own. “Did you forget about the other night? My scent can do some damage. You’ve seen that first hand.”

 _Her scent._ He  _had_ seen it first hand. In all the commotion over the last few days, he had forgotten to ask the woman about her strangely terrifying fragrance. Even now, recounting the paralyzing scent had him shaking with fear and his instincts coiled back inside his mind at the memory. “Okay, what the fuck is that about, by the way?” He questioned hotly as he adjusted his headband against a few stray hairs. “I've never witnessed, or even fucking _heard_ of something like that in my entire life…”

“Yeah, it is unusual. I’ll give you that,” Miyo chirped with a musical laugh that melted his insides.

_A few more hours...she was his in a few more hours._

Ukai cocked an eyebrow. “So, are you going to tell me anything more or just leave me terrified of your freakish nature?”

“ _Freakish?!_  I’m not a freak!”

“You kind of are. I mean, that shit was scary, Miyo. It’s one thing to be spooked by a dominant Alpha scent, but an Omega one? Fuck, just thinking about it gives me chills~”

“It’s not as scary as you think,” the raven said with a small shrug, toeing a flower in the grass. “I don’t have much control over it. It kind of, comes and goes whenever it pleases.”

“I thought, uh, that Omegas had crazy good scent control,” Ukai put forth as he sat down on the steps in front of her. “You know, practice from having to keep in reigned in all the time...”

“Yeah, we do, but the paralyzing scent I have is...different. It’s sort of, an unconscious reaction. Similar to your Alpha instincts, I guess.”

“When did you first notice it?”

“Oh, that’s a long story.”

“Yes, and?”

“Okay, fine. Get comfy. Grab your spare beer,” she remarked with a sly giggle, raising an eyebrow as he reached back to snag the tall boy hidden behind him. “I have two brothers, not sure if I’ve told you that or-”

“You did not.”

“Yeah, two of them. Twin Alphas, if you can believe that. And a whole host of cousin Alphas. Alllll boys. I am the proud, sole Omega of my family. I guess I’m pretty lucky that they were so supportive of me. They’re kind of the reason I’ve been so successful in snagging an Alpha profession…” Miyo trailed off with a small, reminiscent smile that sent butterflies through Ukai’s stomach at her subtle beauty. “But that’s neither here nor there. Anyways, when I was, _god_ , I think I was twelve or thirteen...yeah...thirteen. I was at the park with my brothers, and one of my cousins. They got into this stupid argument. I don’t even remember what it was about, but they all started brawling. Pretttttty normal among Alphas, but as it went on, it started to turn really fucking violent. Looking back now, I guess they were young and couldn't control their instincts very well...they lost their conscious control.”

Ukai sighed and ran a hand through his blonde hair. “Yeah, that has been known to happen. Especially in younger Alphas…” He agreed, humming under his breath as he sipped at the fresh beer. “That’s why boarding schools are so popular, hey? The kids there are always under some watchful eye. Working parents can’t always keep track on their teenagers...”

“Mmm, too bad your kiddies aren’t forced to stay at home like mine are...” Miyo murmured under her breath before continuing. “Anyhow, I don’t know how long the brawling went on for, I just remember seeing a lot blood. Oh, and hearing these awful and terrible snarls. Even now, I can hear them in my head, I hate it."

"All three of them were bashing into each other so violently, I didn’t know what to do! I remember thinking, oh, shit, my scent is so panicked, it’s going to make things worse! Then, something just, snapped inside of me. I wasn’t scared anymore. I was just... _so angry_. So angry that I thought about killing them for being so... _stupid_. I screamed out at the top of my lungs, yelling at them to stop, and then they just...froze in place. It was like someone had pushed pause on a remote or something,” she explained with a hearty laugh-- one that Ukai could only assume, filled the night air with her delicious scent. “My brother Ren, he was stalled in place with his fist, like, inches from my cousin’s face! I wish I had a picture of it!”

Ukai shivered. “Okay, see, that is so fucked,” he countered, cringing away at the thought of the paralyzing scent.

It was not something he ever wished to experience again. An all-consuming aura that locked you in place against your best interests? _No, thank you._

“It _is_ fucked!” Miyo agreed, still giggling at her recollection. “It is so fucked, and honestly? I have yet to come across any research on it. Which, I guess makes sense…”

“Why on earth does that make sense?”

“I mean, how would our Alpha overlords feel if they found out about this shit? I’ve kept it pretty well a secret, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has the ability.”

“Oh, yeah...” Ukai growled with a small puff of air. “So, it comes out randomly, or what?”

“Not _randomly.._.I think. It mostly pops out in instances when I’m really, really mad about something,” the raven Omega explained with a cheeky grin. “So don’t piss me off!”

_Oh, he definitely wasn’t planning on it. Hell was more likely to freeze over._

“Hey, go check out the back, okay? I’ll be fine out here. I proooooomise that I will shout out for you if something happens,” Miyo affirmed, playfully punching the air in front of her to illustrate her  _fragile_ toughness.

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” Ukai said, rumbling with laughter at her dramatic display. “Okay, I’ll go. But I want you to know that your story didn’t make me feel _any_ better about leaving you out here on your own…”

“What? Why?! My scent can paralyze an Alpha in their tracks!”

“Yeah, when it works... _randomly._ ”

“Well, it’ll be good practice for me, then.”

 _Why was she so difficult?_ Ukai was not going to win this argument. “I would rather-” He started, only to find his frustrations cut off by the eager raven Omega.

“And I would _rather_ you trust me. So, trust me, and go.”

_Fine, he would go, but he was going to make damn sure that one of his Alphas stayed watchful of her in his absence. What the woman didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her._

“Oh!” Miyo exclaimed, clapping her hands at her sudden realization. “Could you send Yamaguchi out here on your way? He and I need to have a little chat about that Alpha boy. The one with the glasses.” 

_Yamaguchi...the freckled one…the quiet one..._

“Hey,” Ukai said as he slowly stood up, stretching his tired muscles towards the sky. “Tobio said something interesting about him the other day…”

“About Yamaguchi?”

“Yeah...he said that the freckled kid’s scent paralyzed him in place during the altercation. I remember it cause I was thinking that it all sounded eerily similar to what you did to me…”

“Shit,” Miyo said, cocking a knowing eyebrow. “I’ll ask him about it. Wouldn’t it be weird if we both had the ability? I mean, what are the chances?!”

Ukai hoped that they were low _\-- one terrifying Omega was enough for him._

“And if you’re gonna talk to him about Tsukishima, tell him that the stupid blondie likes him,” he put forth, turning towards the front door-- his instincts were agitated, but they were momentarily sated by Miyo's adamant disposition. 

“I _knew_ it! You’re sure? Like, really sure? I don’t want to give any false hope to the kiddie..”

“Pretty _fucking_ sure,” Ukai asserted with a curt nod before stepping into the open doorway. “Please, _please_ , just stay on the porch, okay? And don't do anything reckless, for christ’s sakes. My heart can’t take it."

 _He was sure_. Tsukishima’s scent had shifted in the last few weeks, and tonight was no exception. In fact, since the altercation, the blonde Alpha’s fragrance had devolved even further-- a state of perpetual annoyance with his uncontested instincts. Instincts that wanted to mate with the freckled boy.

“Yes, yes,” Miyo affirmed, waving a delicate hand at him as she started towards the veranda. “I promise!”

 _Good. One more night of stress,_ he thought to himself with a huff of frustration, _then his scent would be embedded in her milky skin for good._


	35. Table Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this can be considered fluffy dialogue????
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Thirty Five: Table Games**

**Yamaguchi~**

“Hey, copper top! You’ve gotta pick up the slack for your team!” Yuji shouted across the table at the bristling figure of Shoyo. “You’re slacking!”

“You’re one to talk, you criminal! You’ve missed more flips than I have!”

“I have not! You’re drunk!”

“ _You’re_ drunk!”

 _They were both drunk,_ Yamaguchi mused as the final drops of liquid from his cooler hit his tongue, _everyone was drunk._

“Shoyo’s right, Yuji, you have missed a lot of shots…” Yachi said quietly with a sweet smile, sloshing around the pink contents of her red cup. “Like, a lot…”

“Yachi!” Yuji exclaimed, wrapping his lean arms around the small Omega at his side. “You wound me! Maim me!”

“She’s just telling it like it is, man!” Tanaka chirped, prodding Yuji in the forehead with a finger. “You’re dragging down your teaaaaaam!”

“I am not!” Yuji whined as he nuzzled into Yachi’s golden hair. “Yachi, you’re breaking my heart! Shattering it!”

“You should’ve heard what she said about Tobio when you guys were playing Date--” Nishinoya called over from the end of the table, only to be cut short by a very frantic Yachi.

“No, no, no! That’s out of context! I never said anything about you, Tobio, I swear!” She blubbered out from under Yuji’s arm, her honey coloured eyes panicked. “I promise!”

“She said that your face,” Shoyo quipped at the dark Alpha at his side, wagging a knowing finger in the air. “Yeah, that face! That one! She said that she was surprised it hadn’t _cracked_ yet, with how stern you always look!”

“It’s my face!” Tobio exclaimed, leaning forward to yell at the bouncing ginger at his side. “This is what my face looks like?"

“Noya…” Asahi mumbled down at the energized Omega at his side. “Look what you’ve started, you’ve got them going in on each other again!”

“Oh shush,” Nishinoya replied with a cocky smirk, filling his red cup with a bit of frothy beer. “They like each other, we _all_ know it, so who cares!”

“Noya…”

“Okay! That’s enough! Rooooooooouuuund four! Let’s go, let’s goooooo!” Bokuto cried out, throwing his hands into the air to silence the crowd. “Start at that end, Shoyo. Put your money where your mouth is, let’s goooooo!”

“You got it,” the ginger Omega replied loudly, eyeing down his opponent with intense eyes. “Leave it to me!”

“Alright, copper head, you’re on!” Yuji remarked with a large smirk and a drunken, gentle smack on Yachi’s small back. “You’re mine!”

“Okay, ready? Three, two, one, GO!” Bokuto announced, banging a large hand on the table at the final word.

Yamaguchi watched as the starters hastily gulped their drinks, finishing mere moments apart. In his eyes, they were sloppy in their cup flipping, but much to his amusement, they both retained an intense, energetic determination to see the job to completion-- _they were more similar than they let on..._

“Done!” Yuji declared as his cup rolled onto the wooden table. “Go, Yachi, GO!”

“Mmmm,” Yachi mumbled as she rose her cup to her mouth. “Ayy wamm!”

“Hurry up!” Tobio muttered at Shoyo, leaning forward on the table to inspect the ginger’s flips. “I told you! Use your wrist! Your wrist!”

“I am doing that!” Shoyo quipped back, brows furrowed in concentration as he emulated the setter’s technique. “See, that’s exactly what I’m doing!”  

“No, you’re using more of your forearm! See like this, do it like this! Like this!” Tobio criticized, flicking his undamaged arm in an upward motion. “Not like that, like this!”

“I am doing th-- DONE!”

Yamaguchi giggled at their loud exchange-- _always at each other's throats...in the best way possible._ Both of them had an internal fire and a zest for winning that refused to be stifled. Although they seemed be in constant odds, he knew that it was their unique was of showing affection. Tobio had been practically glued to Shoyo’s side since the hospital, keeping watch over him during his waking hours. Plus, the dark Alpha’s scent had begun to seep an undertone of curiosity for the ginger-- one that Yamaguchi knew would eventually shift to desire, if their cheeky interactions and close proximity continued.

“Done! N-next!” Yachi exclaimed with a hiccup, wiping her mouth on the back of her shirt.

“As expected from my partner in crime!” Yuji mumbled into Yachi's hair, once again embracing the blonde Omega in an energetic hug. “Amazing! Incredible!”

“Yuji, move over!” Nishinoya yelled after finishing his drink, shoving the happy Alpha and his entrapped Omega to the side. “You’re in my space! Do you want to win or not?!”

“Sorrrrrrrrrry,” the blonde Alpha replied with a smirk, nestling into Yachi’s blonde locks again to inhale her scent. “My badddddddddd.”

“Hurry up, Tobio!” Tanaka growled, watching with intense eyes as his teammate concentrated on flipping his cup onto the table. “Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of prodigy?! Flip the dang cup!”

“Hey, give the kid a break!” Nishinoya chimed in, his pink tongue sticking out as he attempted his fourth flip. “Just look at his messed up arm!”

“He’s not even using it to flip!” Tanaka yelled back, a hand hovering over his cup in anticipation. “Are you sure that you’re a prodigy?! Are you-”

“Done!” Tobio called out, raising back up to full height with a small sigh of relief. “Shoyo was _way_ worse than me and you didn’t give him any shit...and I don’t call myself a prodigy, _you_ call me that.”

“Shoyo is,” Tanaka started in response, angling his red cup against the edge of the wood. “Not as experienced...at...drinking...as...you...are. DONE! Next!”

“Nishinoya…” Asahi whispered over his Omega’s shoulder, a worried look plastered on his tanned face. “You’re falling behind…”

“Don’t you think I know that, Asahi!” Nishinoya snapped back, holding his arms in a prayer position as he watched his cup roll around on its lip. “THERE, DONE! GO, KEIJI!”

 _Man,_ Yamaguchi mused with a sly smirk, _Asahi really needed to make his move. Nishinoya had spent every single night in the nest room, cuddled up next to him. How long was it going to take for the giant Alpha to sack up? Their relationship was twisting into a strange, platonic, mess and Nishinoya too oblivious to make the first move..._

“Oh, Keiji! Trying to sweep the floor out from under me?!” Bokuto cried out as he flipped his cup far too high into the air for a successful landing. “I don’t think so! Not on my watch!”

“Don’t mess up…” Keiji droned after polishing off his drink. “You had a pretty good lead…”

“I WON’T MESS UP!”

“Done.”

“WHAT?!”

“VICTORY FOR TEAM OMEGA, AND YUJI!” Nishinoya cried out, sticking his tongue out as he danced in place. “Man, Bokuto, you really dropped the ball, man!”

“REMATCH! I WANT A REMATCH! I WAS DISTRACTED BY KEIJI’S SCENT!” Bokuto yelled out in anguish, throwing his head back dramatically. “REMATCH!”

“Lies,” Keiji drawled, his navy eyes shining with amusement. “Your nose is still messed up. You can’t smell shit. Don’t try to use me as an excuse.”

“IT’S NOT A LIE, KEIJI!” The owl whined loudly, falling against the table in an upset fashion. “As _your_ Alpha, I’m suuuuuuuper sensitive to your scent!”

“Lies.”

“It’s not a lie!”

“I’m tagging out for the next round,” Tobio muttered, absentmindedly ruffling Shoyo’s ginger hair with his good arm. “I need some water.”

“Alright, alright, we need a sub, then,” Tanaka mumbled, eyes raking over the room, landing on Yamaguchi.

_No, no, no, look somewhere else…please..._

“Yamaguchi!” He called over, furiously waving for him to take Tobio’s space. “We need a sub in for this round! Join our super star winning team!”

“You just lost…” Keiji quipped, smirking at Bokuto’s tragic figure. “We’re the superstar team...”

“No...I think that-” Yamaguchi started, his decline cut short by the overeager, and very drunk, Tanaka.

“Come on!” He whined, rushing over in two long strides. “Pleaaaaaaaase, I bet you’re really good! The quiet ones are always good!”

“Really, I’m not very-”

“Do I need to get you a leash?” Daichi interjected with a growl, grabbing Tanaka by the back of his collar. “You can just go twice. I’m sure you’d like that, right?”

“Captainnnnnnnnn!”

“You can go twice.”

“Why don’t you joiiiiiiiin innnn?”

“Because I’m playing beer pong against Oikawa and Hajime in the backyard.”

“That’s so lame, cap. Flip cup is the game of the evening! We all agreed!”

“We did not agree on that.”

“Who’s reffing?! I’ll ref!”

“Tsukishima, and you’re playing flip cup, remember?”

“Tsukishima is getting involved?! Seriously?!”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeeeeeees.”

Yamaguchi watched, a stiff expression on his freckled face, as Daichi hauled the whining teammate back to the long table of cups. It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ to play, he was just nervous about his abilities-- he couldn’t bear to be the weak link on the team. He had never played flip cup before and he wasn’t one to jump into something without ample practice first. If he could help it, of course.

“Yamaguchi,” an unfamiliar voice startled him from behind. He whipped around, cradling his casted arm against his chest to see the Alpha professor, _Ukai_. “Miyo wants to chat with you, out on the front porch.”

_No..._

“Oh,” he replied with a sheepish grin and a shake of his head. “No thanks, I’m good!”

“Nope, you’re not getting out of this one,” the blonde Alpha affirmed with a knowing nod, gently ushering him towards the front door. “You _know_ what she’s like. She’ll have my head if I don’t _escort_ you out there!”

“No, _really_ , I’m just going to go and get a drink and then I’ll go out!” He stated with a nervous laugh, growing more frantic as he neared the entryway. “I promise!”

“I don’t think so! I’m not putting my life on the line for you, freckles!” Ukai responded, stopping him a few feet short of the open door. “And give her this, maybe it’ll help you escape!” He continued as he handed him a chilled bottle of white wine, granting him a cheeky wink.  

 _Why,_ he thought as he unwillingly took the glass bottle from the Alpha’s hands, _why did Miyo feel the need to shake the secrets out of him? He wasn’t even sure that he knew what secrets she could shake out of him! Tsukishima was...his friend...nothing more…_

“Um, Miyo?” He asked in near whisper, sticking his head out the front door into the cool air-- the echoing calls of his housemates fading into the night.

“Yams!” His professor exclaimed with a massive grin. “Oh, and you brought wine! My savior!”

“Yeah…”

“Oh, don’t be so nervous!”

“I-I’m not!”

“Yams, I know you, you totally are,” Miyo affirmed with a small chuckle, handing him the now open bottle of wine. “Here, take the edge off!”

 _So much for his escape plan,_ he mused as he took a hearty swig from the cold glass, _now he was stuck with his nosy professor-- the good hearted woman with an unwanted interest in his love life._ He had done well to ignore his developing feelings and she was going to pull them forward, in all their complexities, against his expressed will. He sighed deeply, taking another swig of the clear liquid to steady his nerves, ready as _he was ever going be for her interrogation._

**Hajime~**

_A perfect toss,_ he thought with a sly smirk as his ball floated down into Suga’s cup with a small plop. _Perfect, absolutely per--_

“Your elbow was over the line. No point,” Tsukishima drawled, smashing his internal victory to the ground with his lazy words.

“What? No it wa-”

“Ref says that it was, so it was!” Suga quipped as he shook the white ball to dry it. “Our shot!”

“Tsukishimaaaa~” Oikawa whined, batting his eyelashes at the amused Alpha. “Do you have something against us?!”

“Why, I would never show bias,” the blonde replied, pushing up his glasses on his face-- still laced with scrapes and yellowing bruises. “I take this job very seriously.”

 _Yeah right,_ Hajime mused as he rolled his dark eyes, _he had never seen the kid take anything seriously…_

“Nice shot, Suga!” Daichi cheersed, pumping a closed fist into the air as the ball landed in Hajime’s cup. “Wow, so we only need to make two more shots until we win...again…”

“Shut up, Daichi!” Oikawa hotly remarked as he pointed a narrow finger across the table. “We’ll get it back! _Right,_ Hajime? We’ve got this!”

“You bet your ass we’ve got this,” he affirmed, moving his hand downwards to give his Omega a subtle pinch on the cheek.

Oikawa let out a silent squeak, then shot him an intense look that said something along the lines of-- _we’re trying to win, stop being a thorn in my side and take this seriously!_

“I am taking this seriously!” He replied to the silence, his dark eyes wide with feigned disbelief. “We’re going to win this time, I’m sure of it!”

“Your tone! Your tone isn’t serious!”

“It is!”

“No, it’s all _Hajime-like!_ ”

“What does that even mean?!”

“Uh, guys?” Daichi interjected, pointing across the table as Suga giggled at his side. “It’s, uh, your shot now…”

Oikawa gingerly pulled the white balls from their scored cups and handed over. “Don’t you dare miss this shot!” He declared as he snubbed his nose upwards, showing off the angular jawline that Hajime loved to admire.

“You do know that _I’m_ the one who’s made all the shots this round, right?” He chirped, his snarky words stiffening Oikawa mid-throw-- messing up his shot.

“I missed that one because of you! How could you?! We’re in the clutches of defeat and you pull a stunt like that!”

“Oh, shut up,” he retorted, lightly kissing the chestnut Omega on his tense cheek. “You can’t fake experience, but don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of it.”

“So cute…” He heard Suga mumbled out as he lined up for his shot.

 _Whatever. Maybe_ he was acting cute, he couldn’t help himself. He was drunk, his Omega was back at his side, and he was surrounded by friends. _Who, in the right mind, wouldn’t act all cute?_  The cheeky words were not going to bother him-- not in his happy, content state. _Although_ , he mused to himself with a small grin, _admittedly...his show of affection was uncharacteristic._

“We’re not cute, SUGA!” Oikawa called across the table as he tossed the white ball, landing it directly in the front red cup. “Also, TAKE THAT! Hajime scored! One step closer to vi-”

“Arm was over the table,” Tsukishima declared with a coy smirk, taking a sip of his wheat ale. “Doesn’t count.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME, TSUKI?!” Hajime growled, turning to face his blonde teammate. “ARE YOU JUST OUT TO GET ME OR SOMETHING?”

“I don’t make the rules, Hajime, I just enforce them.”

“I don’t see you calling out Oikawa, or Daichi, for overreaching!”

“That’s because they haven’t. You _have_.”

“Hajime!” Oikawa chirped, rubbing him on the back with a tenderness that melted his insides. “Don’t let four eyes harm our unbreakable bond of trust! We’ve still got this-”

“That’s game,” the blonde ref said with a small chuckle, pushing forward off the yellow siding of the house.

“WHAT?!” Oikawa yelled, snapping his neck back to the blue table in front of them. “DAICHI, WHEN DID YOU TAKE THE SHOT?”

“Just now...when you guys were arguing…”

“I didn’t see it, so it doesn’t count,” Hajime asserted, gnashing his teeth together at the loss... _another loss._   

“The ref saw it!” Suga replied with a cheeky grin and a wag of the finger. “So that’s, four wins for us? And, how many for you? One? No...wait, Daichi, how many did they win?”

“I believe it was, zero.”

“Oh, that’s right, it was ZERO!”

“Cockiness doesn’t suit you, Suga~~” Oikawa seethed through clenched teeth. “Sore winner…”

“Oi, who won?” Hajime heard a familiar voice enter the playful banter, _Tobio...the sullen setter._

“They did,” he drawled, rolling his neck on its axis to loosen his muscles as he pointed across the table. “They wiped the floor with us.

“HELLO, TOBIO, if it isn’t the mopey little mophead that I wiped the floor with last time!” Oikawa yelled, shoving at Tobio from the side. “Care to face me again?! One on one, just you and me!”

“You’re on. You’re not going to beat me this time!”

Hajime watched as the two boys set up the table in a hasty flurry, slinging insults at each other as they did so. _When did they--_

“Um,” Daichi interjected his thoughts, stopping at his side with furrowed brows. “When did they become...rivals?”

“I don’t...know…” Hajime whispered back with wide eyes. “I guess...they just have conflicting personalities?”

“Nah,” Suga chimed it, bumping Daichi playfully in the side. “It’s cause Oikawa used to be a setter in high school. A pretty good one, too.”

“Oh, really?” Daichi said, his brown eyes wide with astonishment. “I guess he’s got the grace for it, and the level head…”

“Yeah, he was pretty torn up after seeing Tobio set in the Date Tech game,” Suga explained with a small giggle. “Normally he has it in his mind that he’s better than allllllll the Alpha setters, but I think he was a bit rattled by Tobio’s abilities. The kid’s good, and this is how Oikawa responds to that kind of realization.”

Hajime was always learning something new about the chestnut Omega, he loved it-- it kept things interesting. Oikawa was full of surprises. Perhaps, later in the week they could rent out a university gym and he could show his omega just how _good_ at volleyball he actually was. _Plus, he did always fantasize about sleeping with someone in the storage closet..._

“Hey, Daichi, Hajime,” a deep voice, one that could only belong to his coach, chimed in from behind, pulling him from his lewd thoughts. “Have any _unwanted_ guests shown up back here?”

 _Unwanted guests...what did Ukai mean...unwanted guests._ In an instant, his instincts roared inside his skull, his scent coiling into the air around him with a vicious fury. _Protect Oikawa...Suga...fellow Alphas...pack._

“What do you mean,” Daichi growled as he pulled Suga towards the house, his domineering scent seeping out into the night air. “Where.”

“Relax, you would’ve smelled them,” Ukai asserted, his own throat rumbling in response to his fellow Alphas. “There were a few out front, but I took care of them.”

“Good,” Tobio barked from the table, dark eyes fixated on the dim yard before him. “If anyone--”

“Okay, boys. Let's just relax and enjoy our night, hmm?” Oikawa chirped, his calm, ocean scent wafting over the back porch-- blending well with the blue hue from the overhanging lights. “We’re more prepared this time to handle any unwanted guests~~”

“Exactly,” Suga nodded in agreement, his own sweet scent blending in with his nestmate’s, forming a strong, relaxing tranquility to ease the Alpha tension. “Take some deep breaths and relaxxxxx.”

“We can still guard while we play and have fun,” Ukai growled in agreement, reaching for the green cooler near the door. “Hajime, ya got any amber beer back here or what?”

“Uh, yeah, the tall boy cans,” Hajime replied, shaking his head to physically bring his foggy mind back from his instincts. “Grab me one, would ya?”

“Yeah, me too…” Tsukishima grumbled and Hajime sniffed the air, surprised to find his teammate’s scent gruff and agitated. “One of the Sapporos, not that dark shit that _he_ drinks.”

_Huh, maybe the kid’s feelings towards Yamaguchi were further along than he had expected. Why else would he be so easily provoked by Ukai’s words? Perhaps, all of the Alphas in the home had something to protect now…_

“Hey, Daichi,” Ukai called out to the captain next to him. “You going inside?”

“Yeah, I was going to grab a few more beers for the cooler, what’s up?”

“Can you check in on Miyo, she’s on the front porch...”

“Uh, yeah, of course…” The captain replied with furrowed brows, momentarily debating whether or not to push the topic further. “I’ll, uh, be back in a second.”

“Yo, coach,” Hajime put forth, catching the can of beer that Ukai tossed his way. “What’s the deal with you and Miyo, anyways?”

It was bold to ask, but he couldn’t contain his curiosity. Miyo was mated, Ukai’s scent seeped a desire to mate with her, and the two hadn’t been closer than a few meters all night. It was an... _odd situation._

“I’m remating her,” Ukai stated plainly as he cracked his tall can, catching Hajime by surprise with the honest answer. “Her mated scent is fucking _killing_ me, though, I can’t get within an arm's length of her without wanting to throw up.”

“That’s daring of you,” Tsukishima drawled, taking a hearty sip of his wheat beer. “When did you decide that?”

 _Wow_ , Hajime thought with a smirk, _Tsukishima, showing interest in someone else? The kid must really be drunk…_

“I know, but what’s done is done. It’s already decided,” Ukai growled, fiddling with the sticker on his can. “We’ll figure it out, and don’t you have more important things to worry about, _Tsukishima_? Like...that freckled Omega you’ve been lurking around?”

Hajime burst out laughing at the daring accusation and Tsukishima shifted uncomfortably against the yellow siding. _Man, having their professors around was certainly providing the house with some humorous banter-- no way in hell would he say something like that to his blonde teammate._ He didn’t want his eyes clawed out.

“Yamaguchi is doing well, thank you for your concern, _coach_ ,” Tsukishima seethed back through clenched teeth, averting his gaze to the side.

“Oh, hit a nerve did I?!” Ukai pushed forward, his face plastered with an impish grin. “You sure you don’t want some advice?”

Tsukishima’s face stiffened and Hajime snickered again at his vivid mental image of the blonde Alpha’s thoughts-- _keep calm, keep calm, don’t punch him in the face._ He took another sip of his amber ale and sat down on the porch swing behind him, eager to watch the comedic exchange before him. _Maybe, just maybe, Tsukishima was drunk enough to let slip some of his normally steel emotions. No way in hell was he going to miss this, not with the preachy Oikawa and the blonde’s arch enemy, Tobio, listening in on the fun._


	36. The Drunk Professor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okaaaaaaaaay, so here's the thing. I don't really like writing about Yams and Tsukishima.....I'm trying, but they're so underdeveloped at this point, so I think that their POV arc is gonna have to end here. I'm sorrrrrrrrrry. Maybe I can throw them into a sequel?
> 
> I'll still toss them in with other POVs, but yeaaaaaah. Sorry, guys. I have like 26ish more chapters to go until this is finished and I don't have the energy to extend it further. 
> 
> I promise to give them a bit and fluff here and there, though!
> 
> Lots of grammar issues in this bit! (Really not my best shit)
> 
> (Edit #1 Complete)

**Chapter Thirty Six: The Drunk Professor**

**Yamaguchi~**

Yamaguchi set the half full bottle of wine down on the weathered boards of the front porch and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve-- anxiously waiting for his professor to speak up. He wasn’t ready to divulge his feelings for Tsukishima, he wasn’t even certain what they were himself.

“So, how’s your arm feeling?” Miyo put forth, her narrow eyes threatening him to tell the truth. “Feeling better?”

“It’s...fine…” He replied with a slow nod, growing suspicious of her intentions. “A bit sore, but I get the cast off in a week, so it’s not as bad as some of the breaks I’ve had.”

“Yeah, that collar bone one last year was pretty nasty. This is probably _nothing_ compared to that shit.”

 _It was nothing._ Even his broken collar bone had been minor compared to some of his childhood injuries-- orphanariums were not exactly the best place to live out your early years as an Omega.

“You okay?” Miyo continued, filling the silent night with her pleasant voice. “Are you adjusting here? I know I haven’t exactly been around to help out...I’m sorry about that.”

Yamaguchi inwardly recoiled as her distressed scent suddenly reached his nostrils-- his professor _rarely_ shed negative fragrances. The unusual occurrence left him fumbling around ideas, searching for words he could say to make her feel better. Yes, she was nosy and overbearing at times, but he loved her-- she was closest thing he would ever get to a traditional mother.

“No, no!” He replied, frantically waving his cast about. “It’s totally fine! I’m doing fine, I promise. We’ve sorted things out pretty well on our own. You’ve stepped in at a good time!”

“Well, I suppose,” his professor conceded with a small sigh, her slender body swaying in her drunken state. “Still, I’m sorry. I know it might not seem like it...but...I’m just so...angry...with what happened. The fire, the attacks, the invasions on the house…it’s just...”

As she trailed off, her scent devolved another step, coiling around him with a deeper sadness that permeated his soul. His shoulders slumped, thinking about the trials he and his nestmates had been forced to face. It had been a long journey-- _life_ was a long journey for every Omega. Miyo knew that better than anyone.

“Sorry!” The raven abruptly exclaimed, vigorously shaking her dark head to clear away her tragic thoughts. “I’m dragging you down with my scent. It’s the wineeeeeeeeee, it makes me emotional~~”

 _What could he say to make her feel better? To get her mind off of...oh,_ he thought as an idea flickered across his mind. He _could_ change the subject. _Give her something more interesting to talk about…_

“So…” He began, scratching at the purple surface of his cast. “What, uh, do you think about Tsukishima?”

“Tsukishima? You mean that kid with the glasses? The one who’s always reading?”

“Yeah…”

“I thiiiiiiink,” Miyo sang out, reaching for the bottle of wine at his feet-- _she really shouldn’t._ “That you liiiiike him~”

_God, she sounded even more like Oikawa than he remembered. He was in for a treat, a painful treat._

“I don’t know…maybe I do...”

It was the truth, he really _didn’t_ know. He and Tsuki had spent ample time together, but it was nothing more than them enjoying each other’s company. He liked that the Alpha was quiet, he wasn’t much of a talker himself. However, there was a strange, developing desire within his heart, one that had only grown stronger since the attack on their yellow house. He felt...s _afe_...when the blonde man was near him. Sure, he felt secure around his other Alpha housemates, but with Tsukishima, it was different. More... _personal._

“Well, I’ve been told that he _likes_ you,” Miyo put forth as she raked her gaze out into the dark yard. “From a pretty reliable source, too.”

“W-what?!” He sputtered out, coughing as he choked on his spit. “You...w-what?”

“Yams, really?” His professor chastised sweetly as she raised a manicured eyebrow at his genuine shock. “You really don’t smell it on him? Omegas are supposed to be masters of scent investigation~”

 _True, but he had always been pretty shit at it._ Growing up amongst an amalgamation of so many different fragrances, the revolving door of upset Omegss in his orphanarium, had left him without the ability-- he had learned to tune out the overwhelming smells, not pick up on them.

“Are you going to do something about it?” The raven haired woman continued, filling his silence with another thought provoking question. “You _don’t_ have to, you know. You can do what you want. Don’t worry about everyone else.”

 _Wow, maybe he shouldn’t be so fearful of discussion with her, that was good advice._ At the sullen thought, a feeling of deep seated guilt shot through his gut. _He should have trusted her, gone to her earlier with his troubles. Was he scared...because she was practically his mother?_ He didn’t want to disappoint her-- he could think of nothing worse than letting her down.

“I...I know…” He whispered after a few moments of comfortable silence. “It’s just...everyone is pairing up so fast…”

“Yeah, they really are…” Miyo mused, humming a song under her breath. “It’s...odd. But, you know that you don’t have to do the same, right? Take your time, don’t let the strange happenings influence you to do something that you’re not comfortable with!”

“Yeah…”

“Seriously, Yams,” she continued as she bumped up next to him against the yellow house, putting a comforting arm around him shoulders. “You like this glasses kid, and he likes you, too. But, so what? That doesn’t mean that you have to rush in and change things. Just, enjoy his company. See where it goes, you know?”

 _Good advice again._ Advice that he sorely needed. With his housemates linking up around him left and right, he felt...pressured.

“I…” He began, but faded off, unsure of what to say other than a genuine thank you.

“He walks you to class, right?”

“Yeah, Daichi made him my _going out_ partner…”

“Going... _going out_ partner?” Miyo repeated, snickering against his shoulder. “Wow, so I really have _nothing_ to worry about!”

_What? Worry about...what?_

“Oh, Yams. My love, you are soooo oblivious. It looks like your housemates are subtly stepping in to push the two of you together. No need for me to get involved!”

_They...they were?_

“I-I...are they?” He asked as he turned his head to look at the raven with wide eyes, vocalizing his frantic thoughts. “But, I thought...it was because Tsukishima and me were the last two house members to pair up! That’s all!”

“Whatever you want to tell yourself,” Miyo whispered, kissing him sweetly on the tip of the nose. “Daichi, I can smell you lingering. Come out, we aren’t gossiping, don’t worry about interrupting~~”

 _Alright, so maybe he did need to work on his nose-- Daichi was parked three feet away from him and he couldn’t smell a thing._ Admittedly, he was thrilled when the captain popped his dark head out the open doorway. He and Miyo had barely scraped the surface of his Tsukishima problem, but he was already drained. The distraction was well timed-- _maybe he could slip away from his professor’s motherly grasp…_

“Hey, uh, h-how you doing?” Daichi asked, his tone awkward and uncomfortable. “It’s nice out here…”

“Hello, my dear,” Miyo replied with a sweet smile, cocking her head to the side. “You want to join us? We’re some thrilling conversationalists!”

“Um,” the captain mumbled as he stepped out into the turquoise lighting of the porch, even Yamaguchi could tell that his scent was anxious. “I’m kinda just checking in...that’s...all.”

“What’s up with the discomfort, captain?” Miyo prodding, leaning against Yamaguchi’s narrow shoulder. “You’re all rattled, that’s not like you...I don’t think…”

 _She really had no self restraint when it came to probing into people’s feelings,_ Yamaguchi mused, his freckled nose scrunching up in a small snicker at the humorous thought. _At least her attention was off of him now...he needed a break._

“I’m, um, not uncomfortable!” Daichi exclaimed, shuffling from foot to foot in embarrassment-- physically giving away his anxiety. “I’m just, in a bit of a hurry, that’s all.”

“You freaked out about my scent, too, heeeeeeeeeey?” Miyo drawled out with a drunken slur, taking a swig of the large glass bottle.

Yamaguchi softly grunted as he held her small figure up against the yellow siding. _She really was letting loose tonight…_

**Daichi~**

“Still freaked out with my scent, heeeeeeeeey?” The raven Omega drawled out, her words slurring together as she took another swig of the nearly empty wine bottle.

 _Jesus_ , Daichi thought to himself with astonished eyes, _she was really letting loose...her and Ukai really loved their liquor…_

He _was_ freaked about her scent, and he hadn’t even experienced it first hand. Still, while he was inside the yellow house, her domineering fragrance had snaked into the living room, holding both he and Asahi half-hostage with its overbearing energy. From what he had heard from Kuroo, it was much, much worse in the backyard.

“I mean,” he started, frightened to provoke even the slightest bit of wrath from the raven woman-- _Ukai had balls of steel to mate with her._ “Yeah, it was pretty, um, freaky…”

“Eh,” she replied with a quiet snort as Yamaguchi diligently help her up against the yellow siding. “Everyone says that at first. S’nots so bad once ya get used to it~”

“If I’m being honest, I don’t really _want_ to get used to it,” he remarked, his dark eyes darting about to avoid eye contact. “No offence! I mean, I know-”

“Oh, stoooooooooooooop,” Miyo slurred, playfully pinching Yamaguchi’s freckled cheeks. “This little guy can do it, too!”

_What?!_

“What?!” Yamaguchi vocalized Dachi's inner thoughts, his chocolate eyes frantic at the professor's sudden declaration. “You’re...drunk, Miyo. I can’t freeze-”

“You c-can!” The raven announced with a loud hiccup, planting a sweet kiss on the Omega’s forehead. “That kid, what’s his name, the one with the stern face, like this,” she continued, stiffening the muscles in her slender face, until they resembled.. _.ah...Tobio._

“Tobio?” Daichi put forth, smirking at the woman’s drunken state. She was _funny,_ and definitely fearless when it came to tough or taboo topics of conversation. He had her to thank for the valuable information on Suga, after all.

 _"Tobio!_ ” She echoed, snapping her painted nails in the air. “That’z tha one! The kid with the stiff face. Why’s he always so dang serious? D'ya know why, Yams? S’cause I don’t!”

“I’m sorry, but what on _earth_ are you talking about?” Yamaguchi exclaimed, pinching the woman's loose cheeks together to purse her cherry lips. “I’ve never paralyzed Tobio with my scent!”

“He swaid that you diiiiid” Miyo replied, her lips moving against the freckled Omega’s fingers. “Go and awsk!”

“You know what? I will,” Yamaguchi declared, with more force than Daichi ever thought possible. “Daichi, here, take her, will you? Yeah, here, just let me get my arm...over her...yeah...there we go.”

_How did he get roped into this?_

_No,_ Daichi pondered as he watched the freckled Omega storm into the lively house, _he should’ve expected this. ‘Go check on Miyo, would you?’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ What on earth had he been thinking? Of course he was going to get stuck out here with the talkative professor..._

“So, Daichiiii. Are you going to ask Suga about the mating thing? Or are you gonna wait. Or are you just going to ignore the whole thing? What's going on in that big, beautiful brain of yours?!”

_Okay, guess it was time for round two._


	37. Anxiety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guyzzzzzzz I'M SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG.
> 
> I started my final year of University, so I've been swamped trying to juggle work/school/social life. I'll try to been a bit more consistent, but I can't make any promises right now :( 
> 
> But, I CAN promise that the story isn't going to get dropped. I have the final arc in place now. 
> 
> And....sorry for the mediocre chapter (it will 100% get updated cause I suffer from panic attacks so I want to write a bit more depth to it). But for now, I just really wanted to get this message out. 
> 
> See ya'll soon!!!

**Chapter Thirty Seven: Anxiety**

**Yuji~**

Yuji’s body had reached its threshold of liquor. He wasn't painfully intoxicated, however, he had partied enough in his young life to know that it would be unwise to consume anything more-- especially now that he had received Daichi's blessing to move into the yellow house for good. He had to been on his best behavior.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to leave the party?” Yachi quietly remarked as they stepped onto the landing of the third floor. “I don’t want to seem--”

“Oh, you _sweet_ , caring Omegaaaaa!” He interrupted in a sing song voice, pulling the small blonde into his lean arms for a vigorous embrace. “It's dying down anyways, they won't even know we're gone!”

When a small smile flickered across Yachi's fair face, he couldn't help a wicked grin from appearing on his own. His first and foremost goal had always been to protect the small girl, but right now, there were other, more lustful, things on his mind-- the liquid courage coursing through his body wasn't doing him any favors in that department. Plus, the alcohol had really, really dulled the pain in his jaw. He was going to take full advantage of it. 

The pair shuffled down the dim hallway and ducked into the familiar room across from the tea green nest. As he closed the door behind them, he was suddenly blasted with Yachi's fragrance-- so much so that his knees began to quake from the unusual force behind the scent. Slowly, he turned on his heels to face her, yellow eyes darkening as roses consumed his very being.

“Yachi,” he growled low, his throat rumbling with anticipation. He had not expected her to be so forthcoming with her arousal, ordinarily, she was beyond shy. “What are you doing...”

“I-I'm,” the small Omega squeaked, visibly stiffening at the smell of his Alpha fragrance-- coyly wafting into the air to match her own. “I'm…just…”

As her words trailed off, she began fiddling with the edges of her cream blouse and Yuji closed the distance between them.

“I'm j-just…”

“Are you sure you're ready for this,” he challenged, eyes narrowing with desire as he took in her petite, yet feminine figure. “Are you _sure.”_

Her scent was stifling out the cool air of the room, alerting his senses to her lustful thoughts. He wanted to give in to his feral nature, allow it to rush forward and take all she had to offer, but after everything he had witnessed, his conscious mind knew better.

“Yes…” Yachi replied in a near whisper, glancing up at him with large, innocent eyes. “I'm...I'm sure…”

While the shy affirmation wasn't enough for him, it was more than enough for his excited instincts. In an instant, they sprang to the forefront of his mind and coated his waking thoughts in a deep fog of animalistic desire. He reached forward and caressed her cheek-- his scent rapidly devolving into a domineering sort of excited arousal.

_Were her broken ribs still bothering her? Was she consenting only because of her intoxicated state? Was she rushing into things to please him?_

The sober, cohesive thoughts were banished from his head-- locked away by his feral nature, screeching about inside his skull. He slowly pulled the soft blouse over her head, admiring her fragile figure through darkening vision. Underneath, her small breasts were covered by a white, lace bra and her collar bones were dotted with sporadic freckles. He liked them, _really_ liked them. They suited her, almost as much as her rosy fragrance. As his hands lightly grazed over her shoulders, lingering on her narrow bra straps, a quiet moan escaped her parted lips. He smirked in the dark, then pulled her petite body in close and rushed to meet her mouth with his own. As they pushed together in a flurry of messy kisses, their tongues entwined in hot arousal, he pulled her navy skirt upwards onto her narrow hips. _Somewhere_ along the line, his own clothing had come off, along with her lacy bra, and they had tangled together into the soft comforter on the bed.

Startled to find just how far they had progressed in their foreplay, Yuji, with _great_ effort, pulled away from the Omega's warm mouth and met her soft eyes. She was panting through parted lips-- red and swollen from his gentle nips. He smirked again, admiring the way her breasts rose and fell with each shy breath, then moved down her body to take a small, pink nipple between his teeth. As he rolled it around in his mouth, flicking it against his metal tongue piercing, Yachi whimpered into the quiet air around them and shuddered against his naked body. Her heavenly fragrance washed over him once more, egging him on with its lustful satisfaction.

_Roses. Sweet, fresh, roses._

He continued to tease her breasts and slowly caressed down her tense abdomen to feel for her sex, pleased to find it wet with instinctual anticipation. His cock pulsed against his briefs as he lightly grazed a finger between her folds and over her sensitive nub.

“Yuji…” Yachi moaned as she grasped into his dyed hair with delicate fingers and long nails. “Alpha…!”

He liked hearing her whine out his name in sheer ecstasy, but he _loved_ hearing her instinctual cry-- _Alpha_. His instincts flared up once more and he moved forward to claim her mouth again as he lined up his swollen, aching member with her moist sex. Her natural scent, even more prominent from the slick juices dripping onto the comforter beneath her, was going well to drive him into a state of feral madness.

_He had to have her. All of her. Every single inch. It was all his. His._

In one swift movement, he thrust forward, pushing his cock inside the Omega's warm hole. Immediately, she whimpered out, her hazel eyes glassy with desire, and she arched her back away from the mattress to match his movements.

She was _unbelievably_ tight. Her body was so small compared to his lean figure. It was almost painful for him to be inside of her, but the sheer ecstasy he felt, bathing in her floral fragrance, transmuted all of his sensations into a personal heaven. He pulled back slightly, then thrust forward against, his lean body rubbing against her soft skin, searching for an even higher level of ecstacy.

“Fuck. Yachi,” he snarled as he nipped at the scent glands in her neck, inhaling rosy fragrance-- diluted with Omega desire. “You. Are. So. Tight.”

At his growling words, he felt the Yachi's body stiffen against his own-- losing all of its aroused liquidity in a mere instant. He pulled back to look at her, feeling his heart suddenly pound loudly against his chest.

_Fuck. Something was wrong. What was wrong. What did he do..._

**Yachi~**

Yachi had loved every second, every blissful moment of Yuji. The way he was gentle with her, but sometimes harsh in his teasing. The way she lost track of time-- lost track of herself in his arms. His domineering scent wrapped her in a warm blanket of safety, something she had never felt from an Alpha before. However, her euphoric happiness was shattered before she even had the chance to understand what had happened.

“Fuck, Yachi. You are so tight.”

_Fuck, Yachi. Didn't I tell you last time to loosen up?_

Chaki's voice suddenly permeated every inch of her mind, slicing at her insides like hot daggers.

_You never fucking listen. I told you to relax your fuck hole, you stupid fucking Omega._

She could feel her body shaking against the soft comforter beneath her, but her mind began to cloud over, pushing away the real world with her familiar, dark tunnel of panic.

_What good are you to me if I can barely fuck you?! You stupid slut. Loosen up!_

“I’m sorry...I'm sorry...I’ll be better…” She whispered, unsure of if the words had actually reached her lips.

_Where was she, again? How mad was Chaki, this time? Maybe she could--_

“Yachi?!”

_Who was that? Someone familiar, calling her name from very far away..._

“Yachi. Fuck. _FUCK_.”

_She couldn't place the voice. It wasn't...Chaki...was it? No...it was too desperate...too guttural..._

“Did I hurt you?! Yachi, say something. Please. Please. I'm losing my mind. _Please_.”

 _Please._ The single word had a sensational, raw emotion to it-- the likes of which she had never experienced.

_Please._

_Please._

_Did I hurt you._

_Please…_

_Yuji._

Suddenly, her world flooded back to life. As she slowly blinked color back into her black vision, she was surprised to find her eyes moist with fresh tears. Yuji was holding her to his chest, rocking against the headboard of the bed-- his scent a combination of frantic upset and stress. His left hand was clutching her small bicep with enough force to bruise, but she didn't mind the pressure. The action was possessive, fearful even, and driven by an overbearing worry of losing her.

“S-Sorry,” she sniffed, at long last finding her voice. “I didn't--”

“Did. I. Hurt. You.” Yuji snarled into her hair, inhaling her fragrance in an attempt to ascertain her disoriented headspace. “Did. I. God. Did. I. Again.”

 _No._   _He didn't. She hurt herself_. She let Chaki snake his way back into her waking thoughts. She allowed her _stupid_ , _weak_ mind to draw a comparison between her compassionate, new lover, and her old, twisted Alpha.

“No…” She attempted in explanation, but faltered into an unwanted heavy sob-- overwhelmed with self hatred of her actions.  

_She had ruined everything. Their first special moment together. Why wasn't she strong enough to--_

“ _Chaki_ ,” her blonde Alpha spat out with such ferocity that she nearly shuddered against his chest. “That piece of _garbage_ . That human _trash…_ ” He trailed off, adjusting her small figure in his lap, his houlders tense with hot aggression. “I will _never_ let him touch you again. _Never._ ”

As the possessive words poured out of his rumbling throat, his grip increased in strength and the air around them happily accepted his possessive fragrance. Slowly, it began to coat her own frantic one, once again blanketing their forms with the familiar protection she so loved to bask in.

“Yuji…” She whispered after a few minutes, frustrated tears still pooling in her eyes, against her best efforts. “I'm sorry...I've ruined everything tonight…I’m so sorry...”

“Fuck that,” the Alpha spat back in a tone that would have left her recoiling, but she knew the true source of the unchecked anger. “You didn’t ruin nothing. It's _him._ He's the fucking problem.”

“I shouldn't have let him get in my head--”

“Stop. Just stop. It's _not_ your fault.”

“But--”

“ _Please,_ Yachi,” Yuji pleaded in a quiet growl as he nestled his nose deeper in her golden hair. “Just _please_ believe me when I say that it's not your fault…”

 _There it was again. That word, riddled with heavy emotion_. She felt a hesitant smile spread across her face, still wet with fresh, uncontrollable tears.

“Okay…” She whispered against the Alpha's chest and inhaled the waves of dominant protection, rolling off his sweaty skin.

“Okay?” Yuji echoed, mumbling into the soft skin of her neck, grinning as her scent slowly relaxed back to calm.

“Okay,” she affirmed once more, shifting her attention to controlling the unwanted reactions her body was forcing upon her.

She _needed_ to stop crying. She _needed_ to stop shaking. She _needed_ to ground herself back in reality. For Yuji's sake, and for her own sanity.

“Yachi…” Yuji muttered after a few minutes, nuzzling into her shoulder blades with a scent that she could only describe as... _defeated_. “I...uh...I need to go and take care of myself...you know...in the shower or something…”

 _What...? Oh! Oh, no, no, no._ A sudden rush of guilt washed over her when she felt it-- her Alpha's swollen member, pushing against her lower back.

“I-I c-can t-take c-care of t-that!” She loudly stuttered, flushing a deep crimson as she hurried to wipe the stray tears from her face. “L-let me just-”

“No,” Yuji affirmed with a slight growl, irritated with her selfless offer. “You've barely recovered from a panic attack! Are you crazy?! You're insane. No.”

“No! I can do it!” She replied, scrambling out of his grasp. “With my mouth! I can use my mouth?!”

“Noooooooo,” the Alpha drawled out dramatically as he crawled forward to flick her in the forehead. “I’m not _Chaki_ . You don't owe me _anything._  Not a blowjob, not sex, nothing. Ya got that?” He questioned, jumping up to his feet with a sudden rush of youthful vigor. “I'm going to hop in the shower. Snuggle up into the blankets and I'll grab you some water? Alright…?”

_How. How did she land in the lap of such a kind Alpha. How was he so patient with her? How did he know the exact words to say?_

“Okay…” She whispered, flashing him a sweet smile as she cozied into the comforter-- melting into his protective scent, embedded in the soft fabric.

“Just…” Yuji started, scratching the back of his neck as he flashed her a worried, yet cheeky grin. “Don't disappear on me, okay? I'll be back in a flash!”

“I won’t…I promise.”

 _It was the absolute truth_. She wasn't going anywhere, mentally or otherwise-- not as long as she had him by her side. At that pleasant thought, she curled into the covers, sat back against the plush headboard, and began to mentally list off the items in the room-- grounding her mind in reality, as far away from Chaki as she could possibly get.

 


	38. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware: Spelling mistakes and SMUT.
> 
> :))))))))) Cheers
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Thirty Eight: Trust**

**Suga~**

“Tanka, what the _fuck_ are you doing?!” Bokuto slurred as he stumbled over to his bald friend, standing near the front windows in the entryway. “Hunched over your phone like some devious animalllll! You have a secrettttttttt!”

“Shut up, owl boy!” Tanaka muttered back under his breath and held his phone away from the owl’s nosy grasp. “I’m texting someone, go awayyyy!”

“Ohhhhh. A _lady_ friend?!” Bokuto chirped back, giving the bald Alpha a none too playful punch in the gut. “Lemme see, lemme see!”

Suga rolled his eyes and took a quiet sip of his wine-- _there was no way Tanaka had a lady caller._ The kid was outgoing, but he couldn’t talk to women to save his life. Suga had witnessed him strike out more than once at the volleyball match a few weeks earlier, and he was pretty sure that it wasn’t anything new.

“YES, A LADY FRIEND!” Tanaka roared as he pushed away an overeager Nishinoya, who had happily jumped into the fray. “OFF ME, NERDS! GIVE ME SPACE!”

“Proof! give us proof!” Bokuto growled in challenge as he pulled his teammate into a heavy headlock. “Noya! Grab his phone! Here, take it!” 

“On it, on it!” The spitfire Omega called, jumping into the air to snatch the device from Tanaka’s desperate grasp. “Here comes the thunder!”

“GIVE THAT BACK!” Tanaka cried out as he punched at Bokuto’s exposed abdomen. “Why are you so frigging nosy! Can’t a guy have any peace around here?!”

“No peace for liars,” Hajime slurred, slinging a heavy arm around Suga’s shoulders. “ _You_. With a girl? The world would end before that happens~~”

 _There he goes again, sounding just like Oikawa,_ Suga thought with a smirk, then he chuckled under his breath. He watched on as the playful scuffle grew more vicious, growing even more amused as Daichi suddenly appeared, hitting a large fist against the window in paternal anger. The poor captain, stuck with babysitting duty-- Miyo was not an easy person to handle, especially drunk.

 _Was she really planning on mating with Ukai?_ The very idea of it perplexed Suga to no end. He had always looked up to his professor, to her individuality as an Omega in an Alpha world. She had recounted to him, in great detail, all aspects of her troublesome life-- including her troubles with her previous mate, Sonny. Suga knew, first hand, just how much she regretted mating the scummy Alpha. In fact, his eyes had shone with great admiration when she told him of her struggles to banish him from her life. Getting rid of a mate was no easy feat, particularly for the Omega in the equation. He shook his head and focused his attention back on the playful scuffle before him-- _he was not going to make the same mistakes._

“Who the hell is _Kiyokooooo_?!” Bokuto mused with a wicked grin as he thumbed over Tanaka’s personal device. “That’s gotta be a dude, right?!”

“No. Kiyoko is a chick’s name,” Hajime drawled in reply, then let out a heavy yawn into Suga’s shoulder. “How the fuck did _you_ snag her number? Admit it, you found it written on a bus bench or something...”

“I DID NOT!” Tanaka whined, bogging down Nishinoya’s tiny figure as he slumped down in defeat. “She’s that nurse, the one from the hospital!”

“That hot one?” Bokuto muttered, raising a knowing eyebrow as he continued his quick scroll through the phone. “OH! She's not as attractive as you, Keiji! Not by a looooong shot,” he rushed to assert as his Omega’s amused figure waltzed out of the blue kitchen. "I swear!"

“I’m the one sleeping with you, so I don’t really care who you look at,” Keiji droned, his steel eyes failing to hide his playful attitude. “Look, just don’t touch.”

Suga smiled under his breath-- _fuck they were cute._ He had never seen his pensive nestmate so content before. Never, not even in a thousand years, would he have guessed the owl Alpha as his type. _They were so...different._

“What...is she just checking up on your wounds or some shit?” Hajime asked with a lazy tone, swaying slightly on his feet in his drunken state. “Making sure your _poor_ bruises are healing properly?”

Suga straightened up to hold the intoxicated Alpha in place, groaning slightly under his stocky weight. _Now, Hajime he could get on board with. The Alpha was definitely Oikawa’s type. Mysterious and nonchalant in his actions...and didn’t his chestnut friend say something about the size of his dick?_

“NO! We’re meeting for coffeeeeeee,” Tanaka whined in reply, prodding Nishinoya in the forehead. “On Thursday…!”

“But, we’re gonna rent out the gym Thursday,” Hajime barked in reply, then grabbed at Suga’s half full glass to take a hearty swig of the clear liquid.

“Yeah, so? I’m gonna meet her before!”

“Oi, why are you guys renting out the gym?” Tobio chimed in, sticking his dark head through the archway of the blue kitchen. “Volleyball?”

“Yeah!” Shoyo asked with shining eyes, his own head popping out beneath the sullen-looking Alpha. “Are you guys gonna play or something?!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hajime replied, waving a hand in front of his torso. “If you guys wanna join, you need to pitch in for the fee.”

“WE WILL!” Shoyo exclaimed as he launched into the air, accidentally hitting a very irritated Tobio in his injured jaw. “RIGHT, TOBIO?! Tobio…?”

The setter keeled over, but nodded, rubbing his bruised face with a hand. Suga waited for his usual verbal retaliation at the ginger Omega, however, much to his surprise, it never came. Instead, the Alpha slowly straightened back to full height and rolled his jaw to loosen the tense muscles, then flicked Shoyo in the back of the head.

“Hey,” he grumbled quietly, his eyes dark with suppressed anger. “I can teach you some stuff, then.”

“OH, YEAH!” Shoyo yelled, his entire body vibrating with joyous energy. “We can do some spikes! Some jumps! Some serves!”

“HA!” Bokuto called into the air with a victorious growl that pulled Suga’s attention back to the windows. “YOU LIAR, BALDY!”

“WE’RE STILL ON THIS?!” Tanaka snarled, snatching the phone from the owl’s grasp as he held Nishinoya back with a large hand on his forehead. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

“It says! It says right _there!_ She’s just returning your sweater! It’s not even a date!” The owl snickered, then devolved into a large fit of laughter with the Nishinoya. “It’s…It’s not even a date!”

“Okay, _okayyyy_ ,” Tanaka said with a nod, regaining his undeserved composure. “But, what _is_ a date, really? It is a meet up between two interested parties where--”

“Is she really _interested_ in you, though?” Keiji chimed in with a wicked smirk that, once again, plastered a happy smile on Suga’s face.

“Of course she is! Who wouldn’t be interested in my daring looks!”

“ _Daring_ looks? Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?” Hajime chirped with a sly whistle as Suga grabbed at his stolen drink-- the Alpha had consumed _enough_ liquor for the evening.

“Yo, where the fuck is Kuroo?!” Bokuto called into the bustling house, yellow eyes darting about the room. “If he knew about this…” He attempted, his words fading off into another devilish laugh. “Fuck. If he knew about _this!_ Oh, you would be in a world of pain!”

“ _Oh_ , _ha, ha_. Laugh all you want,” Tanaka seethed back as he shoved his phone into the back pocket of his dark jeans. “You guys fucking stole all the Omegas around here, alright? Fuck, _you_ don’t even live here and you took one! Yuji, too! Where is that bastard?! I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind...”

Actually, Suga pondered as he glanced around open main floor, _where was Yuji?_ He lightly sniffed the air, sifting through the various cheerful scents lacing through the air. _Oikawa was out back with Tsukishima...Ukai...and Yamaguchi. Daichi was out front...with Asahi...tending to his intoxicated professor. Kuroo was...as suspected...upstairs with his mate...fucking._ He sniffed again, leaning towards the stairwell near the front door. _Ah, there was the scent he was looking for…_

As it whirled into his nostrils, he stiffened as the tale it spun. _Yuji was...aroused...Yachi was...frantic._ He quickly moved to shove off his housemate’s arm, ready to rush up the stairs and kick the living shit out of the blonde Alpha, but Hajime held him in place.

“Just, wait it out for a sec,” the Alpha growled into his waiting ear, dark eyes fixed on the stairwell. “I noticed it, too. A few minutes ago. But, there was mutual attraction before. So, give them a chance to sort it out before you go momma bear on their asses.”

_Go...momma bear? He didn’t do that, did he?_

“It’s not a bad thing,” Hajime continued, as if he had heard his personal thoughts. “It’s a _good_ thing, really, but I think you should give Yuji a chance here. He’s a bastard, but I can smell his care for that little blondie. Don’t you think?”

Suga nodded, but did not relax his stiff body. Hajime had, once again, surprised him with his unsuspecting care. It was uncanny, that such a gruff Alpha had taken the time to listen to Oikawa’s Omega lectures…and his own. Not only listen, but actually  _absorb_ the things that were said. In fact, Hajime was doing a much better job of monitoring the scents of their Omega housemates than he was. _Just who exactly was the momma bear around here?_

“If he hurts her…” He began, grinding his teeth in motherly frustration. “I swear…”

“Oh, Yuji’s harmless,” Hajime muttered, then let out another sleepy yawn. “Seriously, he’s just this scrappy kid. You could swat him like a fly is you wanted to...hey...smell...smell that?” He continued, tapping Suga on the shoulder with a gentle hand.

Suga leaned towards the stairwell once more and sniffed, cringing his nose at the mated scents of Kuroo and Kenma, forcing their way into his nostrils. _Did they ever take a break from sleeping together?_ He shook his head, then shuffled out their aroused fragrances and breathed again, taking in Yachi’s emotional fragrance. _It had shifted to a sort of...frustrated...calm...contentment._

“See,” Hajime drawled, ruffling his silver hair with a lazy hand. “Sorted. No problem there.”

 _Sorted...had he jumped to brash conclusions? The yellow house Alphas deserved more than that,_ he thought with slumped shoulders, _he had let his anger get the best of him. He needed to stop dragging in his past experiences._

“Oh, stop,” Hajime asserted with a sly smirk. “Most Alphas are shit, so keep your defenses sharp. It’s how you’ve kept all these kiddies safe, right? No need to change that tune.”

“Okay, _stop_ doing that,” Suga quietly exclaimed as he shuffled on his feet in embarrassment. 

“Stop what?”

“Reading my thoughts. It’s freaking me out.”

“Are you kidding me?! You guys do it to me _all_ the time!”

“Yeah, cause we’re _Omegas_! We sift through emotional scents! It’s normal! It’s what we do!”  

“Alpha’s can do that, too~”

“Yeah, but you guys have always been shit at it!”

“Guess I’m not, then?”

 _No,_ Sugar mused with a small smile, _he certainly was not_. _No wonder Oikawa fell for him. He was calm, reserved, and surprisingly intelligent._ Hajime had sat back and learned, more than any Alpha Suga had ever met-- _aside from...maybe...Daichi._

“I guess not…” He replied, flashing the Alpha a cheeky grin. “You’re not as dumb as you look!”

“You know,” Hajime started in reply, rubbing the back of his head with a large hand. “You may be the _mom_ around here, but don’t think I don’t notice all of your sneaky chirps.”

“It’s Oikawa’s fault! You can only spend so much time with that punk before you start picking up his stupid mannerisms…”

“Oh, amen to that. I know _exactly_ what you mean.”

“And you’ve decided to devote an entire lifetime to that!” Suga playfully disclosed, then erupted into a fit of loud laughter. “Man, you’re going to turn into him!”

“Yeah…” Hajime sighed, but his dark eyes held a devious light of joy that tugged at Suga’s heartstrings. “Pray for me, sugar momma. Pray for me.”   

**Keiji~**

“K-beaaaaaaar, you’re going to sleep in my room, right?!” Bokuto whined as they ascended the stairwell to the third floor. “Riiiiiiiiiiiight?”

“Yes,” he huffed out in reply. “Stop whining…I already told you that I would.”

The effects of alcohol were making him feel dizzy, but a strange lust for the owl had begun to creep through his tired body-- filling him to the brim with a liquid warmth he was unused to. He still was unsure of what _exactly_ the owl boy retained that had him so drawn in, however, he had decided that it was best for him to just go along with it. It had been torturous to fight against his Omega instincts, and his personal feelings. If his first few weeks with Bokuto had taught him anything, it was that.

As the pair shuffled down the dark hallway, Keiji paused to sniff the room next to their own. Yachi’s scent coiled into his nostrils-- _happy and content_. He smiled in the dim light, then followed the owl into their own domain and quietly shut the door behind him. Immediately, his blue eyes skittered over the dark bed in the far corner, swirling his thoughts around in his head at the idea of their sudden privacy.

“That was FUN. No interruptions this time. Thank GOD!” The owl remarked as he casually pulled his white shirt over his head-- exposing lean, rippling muscles that stirred Keiji’s Omega spirit. “Your professor got pretty lit up, hey? Is she always like that?”

“No…” He softly replied, eyes locked on the Alpha’s absentminded exposure. “She only gets like that when she’s upset or stressed out about something. She probably feels bad about everything that has happened to us…I don’t know...”

“Mmm,” Bokuto murmured with a small nod before shoving the blinds aside to light the dim room with the moonlight. “Well, she shouldn’t feel bad. It’s not her fault. Alphas are shitty, it’s not like there’s anything she can do about that.”

“Yeah…”

“Keiji…”

“What?”

“What are you staring at…”

 _Shit. Oh. Shit. Shit. Shit._ Under the intense gaze of the owl, Keiji whipped his head to the side to look at something, _anything_ other than the attractive, lean Alpha across the room.

“Nothing...I was just checking out the room…” He lied as he absentmindedly fiddled with the ends of his shirt. “What are _you_ looking at?”

“You.”

At the unexpected admission, his stomach fluttered to life, pooling with another bout of aroused warmth. _Never_ , in his wildest dreams, did he image that he would be standing there, with an _Alpha--_ especially one with such an outrageous and overbearing personality. _What a sick world._ _If there was a God, he was most certainly fucking with him._

“I can smell you…” Bokuto stipulated in near whisper, his throat humming to life with a feral rumble. “You’re not keeping your scent contained…”

It was a truthful statement, he wasn’t keeping it stifled like normal. _He didn’t have the energy to keep it under...no...that was a lie. Why was he still lying to himself?_ The truth was that he didn’t _want_ to keep it reigned in. He _wanted_ the owl to smell him-- wanted him to know exactly how he felt and what he wanted.

“I know…” He whispered, then glanced at Bokuto’s amused, yellow eyes. “I know...I’m not…”

“And _why_ is that?” The owl growled as he stepped forward, moving around the edge of the bed with a carnal, stalking motion. “Why are you letting it roam around, hm?”

“It’s because--” Keiji started, only to be cut off by a sudden, domineering scent. It blasted him with a feeling of animalistic lust, leaving him flushed and quivering in the dim light. “Because...I…because….” He continued in whisper as the Alpha jaunted forward, closing in on his personal space-- so close that he could feel the heat on his smooth skin.

“Because…” The owl murmured in question, his tone demanding an answer as he reached forward to flick a black strand of hair from his flushed face.

“You really want me to say it…” He muttered, shaking his head in shameful irritation. “Really…?

“I don’t _need_ you to say it. I can smell what you want,” Bokuto replied with a quiet growl, pushing him back against the black door. “I know what you _want_...Omega…you’ve seen to that.”

 _There it was_. His Alpha knew exactly what his body wanted-- every embarrassing desire inside his frantic mind. _He wanted Bokuto’s knot. He wanted his overbearing, dominant scent to embed into his pale skin. He wanted to unconditional protection it offered-- the feeling of absolute contentment it allotted him._

“I don’t need you to say it...but...I do _like_ to hear you say it,” Bokuto said in soft challenge, lifting his chin up with a forefinger to eye him down with probing, yellow eyes.

Keiji’s breath caught in his throat at the outright commanding tone, overlayed with a dominant throaty rumble of desire. He hated that Bokuto liked to prod him for verbal confirmation. _No...prod him for a plea._ Or, at least, he was _pretty_ sure that he hated it.

_Did...he...really?_

“I can always _make_ you say it,” the Alpha rumbled out, grazing a large hand down the soft cloth covering his abdomen. “You want to see how long you can hold out, again?” He continued in playful threat, moving lower to the waistband of Keiji’s black sweats.  

 _He did._ He _really_ did, but after everything that had happened last time, Bokuto’s pouting breakdown over hurting him-- he knew that it would be better to switch things up. He should take the lead, like they had discussed. He wanted to prevent another dramatic tantrum, but more than that, he wanted to show the Alpha that he could play the game just as well.

“Lie down on the bed,” he gently volunteered, pushing against Bokuto’s muscular chest. “Let me…do it...this time.”

The owl cocked a curious eyebrow at him, but complied, and he was hit with sudden rush of anxiety. _Wait. He had no idea what he was doing! The only information he had to go on were Oikawa’s occasional, angry recollections of his promiscuous past!_

He shimmied out of his clothing and his petite frame silently shivering in anticipation, then he glanced over at the casual Alpha. The lean man had made himself at home in the dark covers, his long arms behind his head, watching intently with golden eyes. _Well,_ Keiji mused with a small exhale of stress, _he was just going to have to wing it._

He shuffled towards the bed, crawled up onto the mattress, with as much grace as he could muster, and straddled over the Alpha’s thighs.

“You sure you want to--” Bokuto tried to question, but he cut the thought short with a quick and audible _hush_.

“Remember last time? We said that we would try something else...so…let me do it. Then, I won’t get hurt...right?”

“Oh…right...”

“Don’t pout...” He softly chastised as Bokuto’s scent retracted in shame. He shifted his weight across the large mattress then leaned forward-- face inches from the Alpha’s covered bulge. “We sorted everything out...it’s fine.”

“I’m not pouting...I know...it’s fine...”

“Good,” he whispered, licking his lips as he gently pulled down the black briefs to expose Bokuto’s swollen member in the moonlight. “Glad we have that sorted…”

 _Okay...so...now what?_ He swallowed a lump of spit and parted his lips to stick out his pink tongue. As he moved closer, the Alpha’s sexual scent flooded over him, egging him on with its sheer intensity. Hesitantly, he licked over the tip of the pulsing cock and a salty mixture of clear seed coated his tongue. Bokuto groaned at the gentle touch, the lustful sound doing well to spurn him on with a surge of confidence. He leaned in again and dragged his tongue up the length of the shaft, then took the tip inside his hot mouth. When it hummed against his lips, he increased his suction, bobbing his head in a clumsy, jerking motion-- doing his best to squash his gag reflex.

As he continued, his own slick dripped down his thighs, moistening his briefs with from behind. In that moment, he came to a frustrating conclusion. He _liked_ pleasing Bokuto. He liked it more than he cared to admit. _Fuck,_ he mused as he licked his tongue over the swollen head of Bokuto’s throbbing cock, _he was going to have to get used to it._

**Bokuto~**

As Keiji’s head bobbed up and down, his warm mouth wrapped around his aching cock, Bokuto lost himself in a comfortable haze of ecstasy. The icy Omega was by no means a master at blow jobs, but he didn’t care in the slightest. The personal connection, their intermingling scents, and Keiji’s own, metallic fragrance was worlds better than any expert tongue. As the icy boy gently grazed his teeth along the length of his shaft, he groaned out in pleasant sensitivity and stroked a blind thumb over the purple bruise on the Omega’s cheek-- a mark that he hated more than anything in the world.

“That. Is. Good.” He growled as his head dropped back into the plump cushions. “So. Good. Keep. Going.”

Suddenly, he was hit with yet another intense desire to shove his cock further inside Keiji’s warm mouth. While the feeling was happily egged on by his growing Alpha instincts, he quickly banished it away with force. He _had_ to save the dominant craving for another time-- when the Omega boy was more experienced.

“Like…” Keiji whispered, then ran firm lips down the length of his cock and back up, until they reached the tip-- sliding off with an audible _pop_. “This…?”

Bokuto’s eyes darkened at the cheeky question, raking over the Omega’s sensual figure-- his small ass arched up high in the air, in the most perfect line of sight. His soft lips were moist with spit and clear precum, swollen from his dedicated servicing of Bokuto's pulsing cock.

Bokuto's instincts coiled around, happily watching as the small boy softly panted for new air in the moonlight. He reached forward and rolled a small, pink nipple between his fingers, then he sat forward on the mattress. Keiji moaned at his sensitive touch, his sex dripping past the fabric and onto Bokuto’s thighs as he rocked back and forth against them.

“Take them off,” Bokuto snarled out in command, golden eyes darting to the black fabric in indication. “Take them off and sit on my knot. That's what you want, right, _Omega?”_

When Keiji averted his icy gaze, face flushing a deeper pink, and a sly smirk played across Bokuto’s face. He _loved_ to provoke the boy. He had accepted that Keiji held the power between them in the real world, but the bedroom was his domain-- _he was going to say what he damn pleased._

“Do. It.” He snarled again, pulling harder at the pink nipple between his fingers. “Now.”

He was painfully aware that his instincts were growing impatient. They wanted to see the Omega’s moist sex, wanted to better smell the aroused scent on his milky skin-- even if his damaged nose left the fragrance painfully muted. When the Omega’s small, hard cock sprang up against his own stomach, the boy tore his navy gaze away, looking off to the side in shame. Bokuto leaned back into the pillows, smirking at the timid embarrassment-- _he liked it._

“You planning on riding it?” His throat rumbled out in question, his feral nature rattling around in anticipation at the pleasant sight before him. “Or do I need to come over there and fuck you against the wall.”

Keiji stiffened at his threat, his mouth set in a hard line of understanding, knowing that it was not an empty challenge-- his Alpha would absolutely slam into him from behind if the occasion called for it. He shuffled forward on Bokuto’s thighs, then rocked his hips forward to line up his moist sex with the throbbing member.

“If you want it...” Bokuto snarled as he pulled the Omega roughly forward by the back of the neck. “Then. Take. It.”

Keiji shivered against his legs, his lips parting in an unintentional moan as he slowly angled back against Bokuto's erect cock. He took in the length at an agonizingly slow pace-- so much so that Bokuto was nearly squirming in passionate delirium by the end of it. Half way down, a familiar, creeping feeling pooled inside his gut. One that craved for _more_. He absentmindedly placed his hands on Keiji’s narrow hips, nails digging into the soft skin as he fought against his feral urge to shove the small Omega down on his large cock.

“Mmm,” Keiji whined against his shoulder, lips stiff as he shimmied down further on the thick length. “Please...just...wait…one...second...”

 _Oh, he was trying to._ It was a test of patience that Bokuto had never experienced... _just how much worse were things going to get once his nose was healed?_ Normally, he was the one who set the pace. He was the one who did the fucking. Keiji’s slow ride of his cock had left him puffing out in passionate frustration.  

The Omega slipped further down, at long last reaching the end of his member. He groaned at the snug fit and Keiji took a moment for himself, panting between swollen lips as the muscles of his abdomen flexed in dull pain.

“You’re...so...big,” he huffed out with a quiet whimper, glancing up at Bokuto with unfocussed eyes. “I want to...fit you...but you’re so….big...”

“Go. Half. Way.” Bokuto replied in near roar-- his conscious mind was being eaten alive by his screeching instincts. He needed some sort of friction with the Omega’s warm sex, or he was going to snap into a feral beast of desire. _He could not let that happen._

At his desperate command, Keiji slowly rose up on his knees until only the tip remained inside his quivering hold, then rocked back against the full length. Bokuto’s mind exploded in euphoria, watching through dark vision as the small Omega continued the methodical motion-- his navy eyes growing more frantic and lustful with each movement. As he set his small hands down on Bokuto’s chest and jerked downwards, his scent devolved into an icy, metallic mess of need. _A need for...more._

“You. _Slut_.” Bokuto snarled, lightly grabbing at the Omega’s fragile neck as he continued his desperate rocking. “You. Omega. Slut.”

“I...am…” Keiji moaned back in a tone of hungry desperation that sent his feral nature into an unexpected overdrive. “I...am...a...slut…”

Bokuto increased the strength of his grip on the boy’s neck and unwittingly began to thrust upwards. Keiji arched forward at his sudden movement and whined out against his sweaty shoulder. With the metallic scent glands so close to his damaged nose, his animalistic appetite for _more_ rushed forward with a vengeance.

“Make. Me. Come.” He growled into Keiji’s open ear, roughly pushing him back up to a seated position on his aching cock. “Do. It.” He rumbled again, his words almost pleading-- he needed to knot, needed to finish things before he lost all measure of control and hurt _his_ Omega.

Keiji’s throat whined out and he nodded obediently as he straightened his narrow back, his small fingers lightly grazing Bokuto’s lower abdomen for balance. Then, he arched forward and began an accelerated grind, up and down over the lengthy member-- his own small cock bobbing up against his tense abdomen. After a few minutes of metallic euphoria, Bokuto was flooded with relief when he felt his knot begin to form. The Omega slammed his sex downwards once more, his hold dripping arousal onto the dark sheets between their legs.

“Keiji. Slow. Down.” Bokuto snarled, abruptly sitting forward to embrace the sweaty boy in his arms. “I’m. Knotting. Stop. Moving.”

 _Ice. Ice. Metal. Ice._ The cool fragrance bombarded his senses, provoking his instincts in fury. They roared inside his brain, commanding him to heighten his own pleasure-- to grind into the Omega with everything he had. He bit down hard on his lip, internally battling with his feral nature for control of his physical actions. He would fight back against them until the day he died-- he was _never_ going to hurt his Omega. _Never again._

“A-Alpha…” Keiji moaned, resting his forehead against Bokuto’s shoulder. “Alpha…”

“Please. Stay. Still.” Bokuto growled in reply, clutching onto the boy’s small figure for dear life. “I’m. Sorry. I’m. Sorry.”

When Keiji’s body quivered against his own, he sniffed the air, trying to ascertain just how much pain his Omega was experiencing. He shoved down his panicked thoughts again and again, but couldn't manage to keep them fully under wraps.

“I’m fine...I’m fine…” Keiji whispered, nibbling at the skin of his neck. “Bite...me…”

_No. No. If he did that he would hurt his Omega._

Keiji whined again, a wordless complaint at Bokuto's inaction. "Bite me...Alpha...please!"

Bokuto bit down on his lip and pulled the Omega closer to his chest-- focusing all of his remaining attention on retaining concious control. 

“BITE ME. FOR CHRISTS SAKES!” Keiji suddenly yelled out, smacking a small hand across Bokuto's face in an unexpected slap. “JUST BITE ME, ALPHA! PLEASE!”

Bokuto was stunned in place for a moment, dark eyes raking over Keiji’s panting lips, then down to his quaking body. His eyes darkened and leaned forward to graze his teeth along the soft, pale skin of his Omega's neck and bit down, drawing crimson blood. The instant it touched his tongue, his knot exploded, pumping warm seed inside Keiji’s stretched sex. As he came, he lapped up the stray droplets of blood, satisfaction warming the deep recesses of his body. When his cock had loosened, he gingerly slipped it out, but kept a hard, possessive grip on the small boy in his arms.

“Are...are...you...okay...” He panted against the Omega’s pale shoulder, nuzzling it with his undamaged chin. “Did...I hurt you?”

“You hurt me by being so _fucking_ scared,” Keiji panted in reply, then rolled his head back to look at Bokuto with amused eyes.

“W-what?”

“You were so worried about hurting me the entire time. I could barely smell if you were aroused...your scent was so tense the entire time. I mean...did you even enjoy it?”

“Um,” Bokuto began, suddenly feeling sullen and defeated-- _was he ever going to get this right?_ “Of course I did! I just...had to focus a lot of my attention on keeping control…I didn't want to hurt you again.”

“Well, stop it,” Keiji hotly remarked, poking him in the forehead with a hard forefinger.

“I don’t want to do anything that might injure you. There’s not good reason to--”

“I can think of a lot of reasons.”

“But--”

“How am I supposed to enjoy myself when you don’t seem to enjoy it?” Keiji asserted as he slid in further against Bokuto’s lean chest, relaxing into the strong embrace. “I’m not a damn doll, Bokuto. We agreed that I would start on top to stretch myself out, then you could take over afterwards, right?”

“I guess…” Bokuto whispered, happily licking over the fresh bite wound on the Omega’s neck. “Yeah…”

“You _guess_...or you agree?”

Bokuto sighed into Keiji’s scent glands, then say back against the plush cushions to meet his gaze.

“I agree. Next time, I’ll get it right.”

“Stop over-thinking it! For crying out loud, I started dating you so I could do all the thinking for us!”

“Okay! Okay! Okay! I'll just do what feels natural, then," Bokuto whined into the covers, hiding his sudden need to smile. “I think...I like our cute bickering...and...also...did you come?”

“I like it, too. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean that...about me doing all the thinking. I'm...kind of a mean drunk...I guess,” Keiji admitted with a sheepish grin as Bokuto peaked his head out from the blankets. “And yes, when you bit me. See?” He continued, fingering over the fresh seed on the Alpha’s abdomen.

Bokuto let out a sigh of relief and sat forward to pull the small Omega into a spooning embrace. He nestled his damaged nose into the dark locks and inhaled as much as he could, drowning in the dulled, familiar fragrance.

“I’m tired…” He whispered, feeling into the plush mattress beneath him. “Let’s sleep…put this whole issue to bed...”

“Mmm…just stop over-thinking...and it’ll be fine...” Keiji replied softly, throat humming with a subtle purr that warmed Bokuto's insides. 

When Keiji’s petite frame relaxed into the crevices of his body, another small grin skittered across his face. He was so very content with his reality. _What was life like before his Omega?_

_He couldn’t remember...and he didn’t care to even try._


	39. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so! I know the Suga/Daichi conflict might feel a little shallow or abrupt BUT it's going to be explored a lot in the final arc, so bear with me pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaseeeeeeeee.
> 
> Love and hugs xxooo Thanks 4 reading!
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)  
> (Added much needed detail to Suga/Daichi breakup)

**Chapter Thirty Nine: The Beginning and the End**

**Suga~**

The party had quickly died down, leaving the main floor of the house a mess of sticky bottles and cans, reflected in hues of blue from the hanging lights. Suga had shuffled Miyo’s sloppy figure into a cab and had just spent the last _thirty minutes_ convincing Ukai that she was safe and on her way home. He scratched his silver head, then dumped a few stray bottles in the kitchen sink-- the Alpha coach really had a thing for his professor, and the feeling was clearly mutual. The very idea of it freaked him out. He had planned out his entire life around her experiences, and here she was, complicating everything with her sudden desire to mate. But he had to admit, his Omega professor was in a completely different stage of life than he was. She had already stabbed into the vein of Alpha society, nailed down an Alpha dominated profession, and the respect and power that came with it. He had not. _Not yet._

He sighed, then rounded the corner of the dark stairwell, flicking off the front lights of the house on his way up. He knew that he had to say something to Daichi-- he had left the patient Alpha in the dark for far too long. Throughout the evening, he could smell the captain’s tension and feel his dark, questioning eyes. Worse yet, the man had been stuck out front with Miyo for most of the evening-- and she was mouthy. Suga wouldn't be surprised if she let slip a few of his secrets, or provoked the captain into confronting him about the whole... _mating issue._

As he stepped out onto the second floor landing, he stalled in place, taking a quiet moment to himself to stay his quivering hands. He was very nervous. He never felt nervous when it came to Daichi, but he knew that an was argument looming on the horizon. _How could he explain his feelings to someone who had never shared the same experiences?_ For that very reason, he had avoided the topic altogether. He was certain that Daichi was not equipped to understand his perspective-- let alone agree with it.

Until meeting the yellow house Alphas, he had never desired to mate at all. Then Daichi, the patient, level-headed man with an enormous heart, fell right into his lap. He never planned for things to happen this way. He never wanted it to happen at all! But, it did, and now, he had to break the Alpha’s tender heart.

He just wanted life to be better for Omegas. He wanted to penetrate into Alpha society, as deep as humanly possible, and force that change with his own two hands. _How could he stay honest and open in his cause with an Alpha mate at his side?_ He would never be taken seriously-- that was the terrible truth of this world that Daichi had to accept.

**Daichi~**

Daichi had immediately retired to his room after shoving Miyo, none too playfully, into an _O-taxi_ \-- the overburdened cabbing company for Omegas. When Ukai rushed towards them and started in on a long, drunken rant about the raven professor and safety, he was too tired to give the conversation any energy. He tapped Suga’s small shoulder and raised an eyebrow to silently say, _we need to have a chat,_ then excused himself.

For nearly an hour, he waited in his room. First, lying casually on the bed flipping through _Volleyball Times,_ then, after fifteen minutes, he found himself pacing-- anxious thoughts swirling around inside his skull. Everything had become so complicated between him and Suga-- Miyo and Oikawa’s information on his past, his avoidance of the subject of mating, all of it left Daichi frustrated. He was stumbling around in the dark and he couldn’t bear to keep it up any longer. 

The one thing he did know was that Suga was hesitant to mate with him-- all of his verbal prodding at the subject had easily granted him that terrible truth. However, he still had no idea of the root cause. The silver Omega had a complex mind and he was very cautious of his secrets and ambitions. So much so that Daichi felt incredibly guilty in hearing about his past relations from Miyo and Oikawa. He wished that Suga had enough trust and faith to tell him of his own accord.

When a familiar, sugary scent pooled under the closed door to his room, he stopped his frantic train of thought and clenched his fists at his sides to stay his nerves. He didn’t want to have this conversation, but he knew that there wasn’t any choice. His instincts had grown frantically stronger in the past week, bashing against his skull their desire to mate the silver Omega. They had even become so loud the last few days that he was having trouble keeping a good concious handle of his mind-- being close to Suga was sending them into feral overdrive with a rampant desire to claim. 

“Daichi?” Suga softly called as he opened the black door. “You awake still?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” he replied from his position near the edge of the bed. “Ukai kept you for a long time, hey? Sorry about that.”

“Yeah, your coach really knows how to lay into people~”

Daichi chuckled, imagining Ukai’s drunken, red face spouting nonsense at the poised Omega. "Oh, yeah, he definitely has a knack for it. Miyo really has him riled up, hey? Thank god they’re mating tomorrow. I don’t want him this tense when he start up practises again…”

“Yeah…” Suga murmured, glancing off to the side in discomfort.

_Mating, the one topic that, no matter how he brought it up, seemed to leave Suga riled up and anxious. Was it because of what Miyo and Oikawa had mentioned? Did the silver Omega think that he only wanted him to produce...Alpha offspring?_

“You don’t think they should?” He pushed, unhappy with the tense scent rolling off the silver boy's pale skin. “From what I’ve seen...they seem like a pretty okay match…”

“No…” Suga mumbled and fiddled with the framed pictures on top of his oak dresser. “It’s not that…I trust that Miyo knows what she's doing.”

“Okay...so what is it, then?”

“I just...I guess I’m pretty disenchanted with the whole idea of it…it just seems so bizarre to me.”

“Of Ukai and Miyo mating?” Daichi questioned, already knowing the answer. “Or of mating in general...of _us_ mating?”

“Of us…” Suga hummed under his breath, looking off to the side with a forlorn expression that stabbed at Daichi’s fragile heart. “I’m sorry. I’ve been avoiding the subject so much with you…I didn't mean to drag this out for so long. It wasn't fair of me."

“Oikawa and Miyo told me about your ex, uh, Weston or something,” Daichi put forth, wanting to rid himself from the guilt of knowing the personal information. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to prod into your life. I just-”

“No, it’s fine,” the silver Omega interjected with a hesitant laugh. “It doesn’t really have anything to do with him, anyways.”

 _Nothing to do with his ex? Then...what exactly was the problem?_ Daichi’s last strand of sanity, the hope that Suga was only hesitant about mating because of his past experiences, came crashing down. He was left in the dark, wildly confused and slightly chaffed, with their perplexing relationship. None of the other housemates seemed to have any trouble with mating. Hajime and Oikawa had already planned everything out-- even Bokuto and Keiji seemed close to doing the deed. Yet he and Suga, the first of the bunch to show any measure of feelings for each other, were moving in the opposite direction. Why... _fuck_... _why?_

“I don’t…” He said after a few minutes of tense silence, feeling hot anger boil up inside his chest. “If that’s not the problem...then...I don’t understand…what about us being together are you so against?"

“Look,” Suga started, shuffling from side to side on his feet. “When I was a kid, I looked at our society and decided that things weren’t fair for fifty perfect of the population. Being born an Omega...it just wasn’t fair,” he trailed off with a quiet chuckle at his reflection on his young, innocent mind. “But, that’s not really the problem, is it? As I got older, I realized that the problem wasn’t _being_ an Omega. It was society and how it marginalizes us. So I started to form this plan of action...and now it consumes every waking thought I have. I want to change things. I want to level the playing field between the two genders. I _need_ to. I need-”

“So do I,” Daichi interjected with a low growl, his scent whirling around with confused hostility. “I want things to be different. I _want_ to make things different for you guys.”

 _Had he not made that point clear?_ He had, on more than one occasion, expressed his desire to alter the corrupt system-- to help make things equal between Alphas and Omegas. _Did they not share the same ideals?_

“I know that, Daichi. And I appreciate it. But you're missing the point,” Suga barked back, balling his small fists at his sides. “It doesn't matter how good your intentions are! Mating goes against everything I stand for. It would backtrack everything I hope to accomplish!”

“Just whay exactly does it go against! _?_ What is the principle that bothers you?” Daichi snarled, higher levels of perplexed frustration coiling into his gut-- he didn’t fucking understand _anything_ anymore. “Being mated? Of being with someone forev-”

“Giving in to the same fucking conventions that have kept us Omegas subservient for centuries! I don't want to sell out to that narrative-”

“I'm not asking you to be fucking subservient! I’M ASKING YOU TO BE AN EQUAL PARTNER. IN AN EQUAL RELATIONSHIP!”

“IT DOESN'T MATTER! I CAN’T CHANGE THINGS IF WE ARE TOG-”

“HOW CAN IT NOT MATTER?” Daichi spat out, enraged venom lacing every syllable. “ARE WE NOT ON THE SAME PAGE?! WE BOTH WANT TO CHANGE THINGS."

His could feel his broad shoulder quaking with fury, could feel his mind snapping with a frustrated anger that he could no longer quell. He _somewhat_ understood where Suga was coming from, but the boy was warping everything around-- twisted it up to such a distorted degree that he viewed any and all help from Alphas as a sign of weakness. _He wanted to do everything on his own._

Daichi’s throat rumbled out at the notion, but it wasn’t anything new. He should have suspected it-- should have seen in coming from a mile away. Suga had declined his help, his protection, at every single turn. _He just wanted the boy to be more reasonable...not give up his goals entirely. Why couldn’t Suga give him the same understanding in return?_

“Have you...do you even know what it's like to be attacked for things you have no control over? To be discriminated against, every single waking moment of your life? Unless you have the _protection_ of an Alpha?” Suga asked in near whisper, his eyes locked on the hardwood planks beneath Daichi's feet. “We shouldn’t need that protection. We should be respected...as people. I should be ableto walk around at night. I should be able to walk around during the day!”

 _No._ Daichi didn't know what that felt like, but he _wanted_ to understand-- _wanted_ to sympathize with the silver boy's experiences and share in his pain to ease the burden. _Why couldn't Suga understand that simple fact? Why did he feel the need to do everything on his own?_

Suga sighed and pulled a hand through his soft hair. “Well, I know. I _know_ what it feels like, and I'm going to do something about it. Maybe I don't stand a chance of winning or changing things completely. Maybe I'll fuck up and fall flat on my face, but I'm not going to give everything up, all my hopes and aspirations, just for a chance to be with you. I’m...sorry.”

“But I _want_ to help you change things. I've been telling you this for weeks, Suga! For christ’s sake-”

“I can't be with you, okay?! Are you even listening to me?! No one, Omegas, Alphas, whatever...none of them would take me seriously if I had a mate! What about this do you not understand? If I speak out on Omega independence, and then trot home to an _Alpha_ mate? How do you think people would react to that irony?!” Suga announced through gritted teeth, pacing in front of Daichi with an aggressive aura. “This isn't about my past, this is about my goddamn future! I can't live that kind of domesticated narrative if I want to change anything!”

 _Was that all Suga saw him as? As a mean to an end? A fleeting moment of comfort that had to stop short of a real connection?_ The painful realization tightened the muscles in Daichi's chest and cinched at his heart, threatening to shatter it into a million, crimson pieces of remorse.

“So…” He whispered after a few moments of dejected silence-- letting the sullen realization sink into his heavy bones. “What do you want to do...then.”

“About...us?” Suga replied in a hushed tone, stalling his pacing to glance over with remorseful eyes.

“Yeah...because...I can't…” Daichi faltered, feeling stomach twist up into a heavy pit of despair. "I can't pull back my instincts...I've tried...but I just...I just can't, Suga."

He already knew the answer to the question he never even wanted to ask and he was unsure that he could handle hearing it out loud. Suga was his everything-- the second part of his soul. _How could he revert back to his life before the silver Omega? Was it even possible?_

“I can't…I can't be around you...like this,” he continued in near whisper, feeling frustrated tears pool in his eyes. "I just...can't."

  
He wished, more than anything, that he could stifle his growing urge to mate, but he knew that he would snap. “I can’t...be with you and know that you have no intentions of...being with me. I can only battle my nature for so long.”

“That’s not...I don't want you to think that I don't like...” Suga murmured with upset eyes, his mouth set in a hard line. “No...nevermind. I...I u-understand. It's unfair of me to put you in this position. I know it is. As much as I hate it...I know that the desire to mate is natural. _Animalistic_ …but natural…I can't ask you to keep fighting against it like this. I know I can't."

“So…what then?”

“I just...I can’t do it. I’m sorry. I can’t give you what you want.”

“So we...end things, then.” Daichi stated, his voice monotone and his mind suddenly hollow and far away. “Pretend like this never happened?”

“Yeah...I guess…” Suga whispered, hot tears pooling in his hazel eyes. “No...um...no hard feelings, right? Maybe...we can be friends...eventually?”

“Yeah. None.”

 _It was a lie. An obvious lie, but what was he supposed to say?_ They could never be _just friends,_ they both knew it.

“So...I’ll go and sleep in the nest tonight...then.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay…”

As Suga quietly closed the door, Daichi stood frozen in place, his dark eyes staring off into the distance, hollow and unfocused. He felt like his heart had been snatched away, or encased in a frozen pit of ice.

_End things…_

_Pretend like this never happened…_

Reality seemed worlds away, and he wasn’t about to reach out for it. Instead, he remained inside his comfortable, dissociated mind, unwilling to accept the bitter truth that had been forced upon him.

**Yuji~**

Yuji found himself wide awake at exactly 5:59am. Perhaps, it was a side effect of his liquor consumption, or maybe, there was a sweet smelling Omega lying next to him in his bed. He sat back against the headboard and squinted into the early morning sun as it poured through the large bay window. Beside him, Yachi stirred under the massive covers, her golden crown a mess of bed hair. He smiled at her small figure, lightly caressing his sore jaw at the movement-- it was healing fast, but not fast enough for his tastes. The aching pain was irritating, it flared up each time he moved his mouth, and he was a talkative guy.

“Gooooood morningggg, sunshine!” He exclaimed softly as he snaked in close to her sleepy figure and planted a cheeky kiss of her flushed cheek. “You look so cute when you’re sleepy!”

“Mmm,” Yachi mumbled as she slowly blinked the sleep from her eyes, shying away from the harsh sunlight. “What time is it…”

“Early!”

“Then...why are we awake…you don’t have class for...hours...”

 _A fine question,_ the answer to which was his hard cock, rearing for another go at the rosy Omega. He watched with devious eyes as she slowly pulled herself up to her knees, the grey covers pooling around her petite frame. Then, she lightly sniffed the air and her tired eyes snapped open, her mouth opening in shy shock.

“Oh!” She coughed out, honey colored eyes darting off to the side. “You...I...you-”

“Sorry,” Yuji faltered with a bashful grin, rubbing the back of his messy hair. “You know I’m not very good at controlling my scent.”

“We can-”

“No, no! I don’t want to do it after everything last night! I just wanted some morning company!”

Yachi gave him a sweet smile, then reached down to pull at her yellow pajama blouse and Yuji froze in place-- breath caught in his throat.

“Seriously, Yachi, I didn’t wake you up because-”

“I want to…” The rosy Omega replied, pulling the cloth over her head to reveal a small pair of breasts, her pink nipples erect from the cool air. “I’m feeling much better this morning!”

 _Even the sight of her bare torso had his instincts coiling around in a furious mess of desire! God help him. He needed to keep it together._ During his midnight shower, after he had relieved his aching erection, he had spent more than a few minutes pondering the things he could do to make Yachi more comfortable during sex. Most of his ideas were serious flops, but there was one viable option...

“Yachi. Are you sure,” he growled, unable to stop his scent from devolving into a sexual mess of desire. “We don’t have to push this. I shouldn’t have woken you up. I was just...excited. I’ve never really woken up with an Omega in my…” He trailed off, furrowing his brows.

A hard rock of despair formed in the pit of his stomach as his mind combed over his previous relations with Omegas. He had been a deviant-- treating them like objects to be used and discarded. _Fuck,_ he thought to himself with a deep sigh of shame, _was he different now?_ After meeting Yachi, and her friendly nest, he didn’t even want to think about his past indiscretions. They seemed like a lifetime ago, but were they, _really? Did he even have the right to say that he had changed?_ He had only known the rosy Omega for a week-- before that, he was the type of Alpha he now despised.

“I’m sure,” Yachi softly affirmed, mistaking his stressed scent. “Don’t be so worried...I know what I’m doing!”

Yuji shook his head, deciding to leave his past out of the equation, at least, for now. He raked his gaze over her nearly naked form, suddenly feeling an innate desire to pounce her. _Slow,_ internally commanded to his screeching instincts, _he was going to try something...different._ He was not going to knot her and his feral nature was just going to have to deal with it.

He leaned in towards her to better smell the pleasant, rosy air, then pulled her small body towards his own and leaned back into the mattress. He planted a gentle kiss of her temple, then pulled his shirt over his lean shoulders and smirked down at the Omega beneath his body. She looked up at him with foggy eyes and her scent skittered around, leaking arousal. He reached down to put his large hands on her waist, craving contact, but left her lacy underwear in place. He didn’t want her to feel any pressure whatsoever-- if any clothing was going to come off, she was going to have to be the one to do it.

“Are you okay,” he growled again, his eyes darkening as his lust increased at the beautiful sight before him. As he ran his hands gently over her healing ribs she inhaled at his touch.

 “I'm fine. Keep going,” Yachi affirmed with a small, yet firm, nod, then reached down and placed her hand on top of his own, guiding it up to her small breasts. “It's okay…really...”

Yuji sucked in a quick breath, feeling his vision cloud over with an instinctual haze. He was losing his mind but, he was determined to set a new record for the world's most patient Alpha. If Yachi didn't feel completely comfortable, he knew that she would fall back into her state of dissociation-- and he hated it with every fiber of his being. _Not again. Twice was more than enough for his tastes._

He leaned forward against her delicate figure and gently cupped her face with affectionate hands. Then, he grazed his nose against her neck and lightly nipped at her scent glands, receiving an aroused whimper in response. Soon, Yachi began to grind her hips against his thigh, pleading for him to take things further, but he stayed his hands. There was no way in _hell_ he was going to knot her. He figured that, maybe, he could possibly bypass her anxiety by pleasuring her in a way that he was _certain_ Chaki hadn't.

He smirked at his devious plan and kissed her neck, then down to her breasts and took a pink nipple in his mouth. Sucking and rolling it with his pierced tongue, he gently ran a finger over the wet fabric covering her sex. Yachi let out a shy gasp at his touch, and he was pleased to find that it was from shocked pleasure. After playing around with her nipples for a few minutes, he promptly released her breasts and coyly licked down her soft stomach, pulling himself to his feet at the edge of the bed. Yachi looked up at him with a flushed face and parted lips, confused by his movement. He grinned at her silent question, then carefully pulled her hips to the edge of the bed and looked down at her underwear.

“I'm not going to knot you,” he snarled, unable to keep his instincts from spilling over into his tone. “I’m want to try something. I need these removed,” he continued in rumbled, gesturing to the blue fabric.

Yachi put a delicate finger to her lips, nodded, and shimmied out of the moist garment, dicarding it to the hardwood floor. Yuji stiffened at the open sight, and appealing smell, of her bald sex. _Do not knot her, do not knot her,_ he repeated in frantic mantra, trying to banish his intense desire to fuck her into the messy sheets. He rolled his shoulders to reset his tense muscles and knelt down to run two fingers over the sensual lips-- she was so soaked with anticipation that he felt sexually charged down to his quivering bones.

“Just. Give it a chance,” he growled as he moved his head to shake his pierced tongue over her most private area. “I. Promise. It will feel good.”

At his touch, Yachi's body arched away from the mattress and she grasped at the covers next to her.

“Alpha…!” She moaned, as he gingerly rolled her swollen clit between his teeth. “Oh god! Please…Alpha...”

When she attempted to roll to the side and present herself, he held her narrow thighs and snarled-- commanding her to stay in place. He loved to see her squirm with pleasure, right in the palm of his hand. _It was almost as good as fucking. Almost._

He increased the pressure with his mouth and reached up to tug at one of her pink nipples. Smelling her rosy ecstacy, jutting out into the air around him, he knew that she was close to a sweet orgasm. He gently bit down on her clit and increased his suction, trying to heighten her pleasure to higher levels, and her body exploded in a series of gasping moans. Her flowery scent flooded the room with an electric energy that send shivers down his spine. For a moment, as his Omega quivered into the sheets of the bed, he basked in her sexual energy. However, when his vision darkened and his instincts clamored forward, he immediately stumbled back and rushed towards the bay window. He rolled open the glass and stuck his head as far out the window as he could manage. Gasping for clean, morning air, his body trembled with hot desire. Slowly, the new air in his lungs dulled his feral nature and he felt his tense body relax back to normal.

“Are you...okay?” Yachi asked, the pink flush slowly leaving her pale skin. “I’m sorry, I-”

“Hey!” He challenged back in a playful tone, jerking a finger at her sprawled out figure. “What did we say about apologizing!”

“I know, I know!” The golden Omega squeaked as she hid her face under the grey covers. “I’m working on it…”

“Good!”

“Thank you…”

“See,” Yuji said with a coy smirk, flipping the comforter back to eye down his Omega’s started face. “Now, you can fall back into the most restful, wonderful sleep you’ve ever experienced!”

Yachi’s honey coloured eyes flickered between his cheeky face and the window, then she smiled sweetly. “What about you? Do you need me to…”

“No, no,” he affirmed with an intense nod. “I’m just going to jump in the shower and head downstairs. I’m wide awake, and you areeeeeee,” he continued, poking Yachi playfully in the forehead. “Not! You’ve sleep got sleep in your eyes!”

“I guess I could-”

“Good! It’s decided,” he quickly interjected as he started towards the bathroom. “See you in a few hours, rose girl!”

He quickly closed the white painted door behind him, shutting out her delicious scent. He needed to regain some measure of control again, her rosy fragrance had completely covered every inch of their room. Hopping into the steamy shower, he jerked off to vivid images of his Omega's quivering body-- her flushed cheeks, parted lips, and aroused whimpers. When he came, his body shuddered against the cool tile and he pushed his head into the streams of warm water. He wished, more than _anything_ , that he could knot her. _Make her his. Protect her with his scent._

_Chaki._

_The monster. The man who had defiled her, body and soul. He had shattered her beautiful mind into a billion pieces that--_

_Wait. What was preventing him from doing it again?_ Ukai had promised that he would do everything in his power to get retribution, but was that enough? Chaki could crawl back, at any moment, and steal his Omega away. _Cripple her mind all over again…_

At that frantic thought, his instincts snaked up into his mind and he punched into the white tile, shattering the porcelain. As his knuckles bled over his hand, down into the swirling water of the tub, his throat began to rumbled out with quiet fury. _He needed to get some fresh air before he snapped completely._


	40. Plans of Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Double update woowoooooooooooooooooo 
> 
> Again: beware of grammar errors :(
> 
> ALSO: I'm swamped with midterms this week so brief hiatus, sorry guys.
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)  
> (Fixed those goddamm extra spaces)

**Chapter Forty: Plans of Action**

**Hajime~**

Hajime woke up with a wicked hangover-- a great start to his first day back at school. His brain felt like it was rattling around, bruising the edges of his skull. Next to him, Oikawa was still deep in slumber, his angular features even more stunning in the morning light. Hajime reached across his slender figure, desperate for the half empty bottle on water on the nightstand-- _his salvation._

As Hajime chugged the warm liquid, his eyes glanced over his Omega's pale face, locking on the pink scar that snaked up from under the boy's eye. Sucking back the final drops of water, he crushed the empty plastic in his hand and threw it across the room-- trying to physically release the sudden burst of his pent up rage.

 _Kabuto...the scum of the earth...the Alpha that had harmed his Omega...his love._ He had not forgotten what had happened, merely stored it away for a brief period of time while his Omega was out of his grasp. Now, with Oikawa back at his side, the raw, biting feeling of spite had begun to pour back with a bitter vengeance. His throat rumbled out in a hostile growl as he reminisced over the terrible event, playing the happenings over inside his mind. Both he, and his coiling instincts, were furious at his failure to kill the Alpha fuckhead-- he should never have let him leave the property alive.

_He should have slit his throat when he had the chance. He had the chance and he had failed._

Although Ukai had promised to pursue action against them, via the University Disciplinary Committee, he knew that there was no guarantee of actual punishment. The _bastard_ pack of Alphas had already escaped unscathed after burning down a University building, after all. There was _nothing_ keeping the group away from their Omega housemates in the future...

He ran a large hand through his messy, morning hair and glanced back at his beautiful Omega, lying in a pool of covers next to him. The aspects of Oikawa’s personality that he so admired, even _loved_ , were making the situation ever more complex. Hajime knew that he would not hesitate throw himself at Kabuto in attack, if the Alpha ever had the balls to show up again.

 _What if the next encounter was the last one? What if Kabuto took away the one thing he held most dear to his heart?_  Hajime could hardly manage to even ponder the idea-- if Oikawa was ripped away from him, he wasn't certain that he could carry on living.

Staying his riled up instincts, he leaned in and grazed his lips over his Omega's angry scar, then rolled off the edge of the bed. He pulled a white shirt over his head and struggled against a pair of sweatpants before exiting his fresh smelling room into the hallway.

 _Calm down_ , he repeated in over and over, slapping his furious instincts with the heavy, internal words, _we're going to do something about it_. _I have a plan._

When he stepped onto the main floor, his gaze flickered over to the clock above the television. _6:43am,_ much earlier than he had expected. He lightly sniffed the air and was startled to find another awake scent... _Yuji._ The blonde Alpha's fragrance was more than a little agitated-- and it was _familiar_ agitation _._

_Perhaps, he was not alone in his thinking..._

He brewed a quick cup of coffee, then pushed through the back door of the house and stepped out onto the porch. His scrappy teammate was pacing in the dewy grass beyond, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. A frustrated fragrance coiled off of his lean figure in waves of heightened fury.

“Yo, Yuji. I need to talk to you,” Hajime growled under his breath, scrunching up his nose at the hot, agitated scent that was blanketing the backyard. “Pretty sure we're on the same page about some things…you smell just as pissed as I am. I'd put down money that it's for the same reason.”

“Yo, my instincts have been freaking out _all_ morning!” Yuji mumbled in reply, lightly sniffing the cool morning air to come to the same conclusion. “Funny, I didn't expect us to both be awake at the crack of dawn over this shit. What are the chances…” He trailed off with a nervous laugh, running a hand through his dyed hair. “I mean, I don't have your level of control, but fuck, man. I normally have some reign over them...this is just ridiculous.”

“Yeah, mine are getting bad, too,” Hajime remarked as he rolled his tense neck to loosen the muscles, then took a sip of his warm coffee. “Even for me.”

“Those _motherfuckers_...the whole thing still has me on edge. And it's worse when I'm around Yachi...almost unbearable...thinking about what they did...what they could _still_ do...”

“Yeah...me too. Oikawa's scar just...”

“You got something in mind, then?” Yuji growled, shaking his head to better ground himself in reality. “Cause if it's bashing in some skulls, I'm all ears.”

“Yeah...something like that…” Hajime replied with an unintentional snarl. “But, Oikawa would kill me if…” He trailed off, smirking under his breath. “No... _Yachi_ … _she’s_ the one that would kill us if we did anything too rash. She's too sweet...I bet she's terrifying when she's angry.”

Yuji visibly shuddered from head to toe. “Yeah, fuck. I don't even want to think about that. How about…” He rumbled with a knowing nod, his light eyes darkening with devious rage. "A _friendly_ warning, then? That would make me feel a bit better I think. I could blow off some steam.”

“Yeah, that would make me feel better, too.”

At least, it would make him feel a _little_ better _. He wasn’t planning of slicing any throats, but accidents happened, right?_

“Yo,” Yuji mumbled, shuffling his feet in the dewy grass. “Do you ever...feel guilty?”

“About my Omega getting hurt?” Hajime growled in reply, flexing his fingers at his sides. “All the fucking time.”

“No. I mean...about how...you were before. Like, how you treated Omegas...before all of this mess.”

 _Oh. Yeah._ Hajime really wished that he could burn that bridge to his past-- but he was better for it, now. _He was certain of it._

“I think...I think that I was a piece of shit...before all this stuff happened,” Yuji said through clenched teeth, his scent devolving into a dejected mess of upset. “I’ve never really thought about it before, but I was… _just awful_. Fucking awful. I never thought of them as people...I just saw them as..."

“ _Objects._  Yeah. I know what you mean,” Hajime grumbled, glancing down at his blue _Nikes_ in shame. “Self-hatred is going to become your best friend. Get used to it.”

“Yeah…okay.”

“Seriously,” he continued, meeting Yuji’s feisty, hazel gaze. “Use it as fuel for your fire. That’s what I do, anways.”

“Yeah,” his teammate mumbled, toeing a blade of grass. “I’ll try that. It might work.”

“Yo, I'm gonna go for a jog to blow off some steam. I'll fire you a text later? Unless you want to join?”

“No fucking thank you. It’s like _six_ in the morning? And I’m hungover?” Yuji sarcastically remarked, cringing away from the very idea of physical activity. “Are you some kind of robot? I mean, I always figured that you were, but I never knew for-”

“Okay. I’m leaving now.”

“Jog a little extra for me!”

 _Oh, he was going to jog plenty._ He was going to run for as long as it took to get his feral nature to relax back into submission. He would need it at full strength tonight, when they put their devious plan into action.

**Ukai~**

“Okay, so it says here that we should mate outside?!” Miyo exclaimed, sitting back in her computer chair with an exasperated puff of air. “That is _not_ happening. We are _not_ having sex outside, in full view of my neighbours.”

Ukai leaned back against the black couch cushions and enjoyed his open view of the beautiful woman across the room. Much to his irritation, he had grown even more sensitive to her scent, ten feet away was the closest he could manage at this point. _Just a few more hours..._

“Here, look at this shit,” Miyo continued as she rose up from the black desk, unperturbed by his silence. “Here, read this. I'm going to grab a snack.”

Ukai uncrossed his broad arms, grumpily waiting for ten feet of distance, before wandering over to the computer. Miyo had multiple tabs open-- forums, how to guides, videos, any and all information she could get her curious hands on. After clicking through a few of the pages, chuckling as the _wiki-how_ ones, he scrolled through the original forum that she had pulled up for him to see.

**_Looking to rescent an Omega? We’ve got five helpful tips to get you through it in one piece!_ **

**_#1 Wear a nose plug!_ **

_The pesky scent of the previous Alpha will be somewhat stifled by the plastic, but beware! It may still seep in through your glands!_

**_#2 Make sure to have air flow!_ **

_If possible, mate outdoors! Their mated scent will disperse more easily than in a confined space._

**_#3 Keep a bucket on hand!_ **

_Let’s face it, you’re probably going to vomit. So, be sure to have something to vomit into._

**_#4 Keep your scent reigned in!_ **

_The less scent you give off, the less potent the mated scent will be. Keep those Alpha instincts under control as best you can and things will go more smoothly!_

**_#5 Water will not help!_ **

_Contrary to popular belief, water does not help cleanse a scent! Showering or bathing during a recent will hotbox the mated fragrance, so steer clear of the bathroom, boys and girls!_

**_Have a helpful tip? Notice something we missed? Leave it in the comments down below. Happy mating!_ **

“Miyo?” He called as he scrolled down to the comments section.

“Yeah?”

 “We are _not_ mating in your backyard.”

“Right?” The raven asserted loudly as she strode over to the wall behind him and leaned against the yellow painted plaster. “I assume they mean, like, go camping, or something,” she continued, biting into a red apple, before gesturing to the screen in front of him.

“Yeah, our options are kind of limited with your heat coming up in a few hours and exhibitionism isn’t _exactly_ my thing,” Ukai stated without turning around, quickly brushing over the ample comments of the forum. “Oh, hey. Listen to this one. _My Alpha and I didn’t have anywhere available to mate outside, so we bought a bunch of fans and set them up on every open window in our living room to circulate air. The whole thing still sucked, but it was definitely easier with the extra air flow!_ That sounds doable...right? _”_

“Oh!” Miyo exclaimed as she yanked her phone from the back pocket of her light jeans, holding the half eaten apple in her teeth. “Thwat’s actuawwy rweally gwood. I’ll awdd it to mwy afternwoon shwopping wist.”

“How about,” Ukai put forth as he craned his neck back to glance at the raven Omega, her amused face upside down in his vision. “I put it on _my_ shopping list. You know how problematic it would be if you suddenly went into heat in the middle of the supermarket?”

“Okay, okay. Fair point. Any of the other comments got anything useful to add before I send you off?”

“Mmm…” He mumbled as he scrolled deeper into the comment section. “Not really. Just a whole bunch of, _don’t do this_ and _don’t do that._ But, it’s all common sense. Like, _don’t do it in a small space like a car._ No shit.”

“Okay, so my living room has the most windows in the house, including the patio door...”

“Yeah, but it also had this really expensive looking rug…”

“What, you don't think you'll be able to hit a bucket if you throw up? I would think that an athletic coach would would have good aim~”

“It's not like I'm a fucking basketball coach!”

“Well, maybe you should have been one! Then we wouldn't have this problem!”

 _Man,_ Ukai thought with a wry smirk, _she was one tough cookie._ Sharp personality, through and through-- _he really, really liked it._

“Okay, okay,” Miyo conceded with a large grin, holding her delicate hands out in front of her. “I'll roll up the rug while you're out, deal?”

“Deal, cause I like the rug,” he replied, wriggling an eyebrow her direction. “And I want it here when I move in.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Miyo called out and tossed her eaten apple core in direction. “So you’re moving in, now! That’s news to me~~”

“Yeah,” Ukai replied, surprising himself with the growl in his voice-- his instincts had been set off by her outspoken personality, on its own. “I am. You got a problem with that?”

“No,” the raven chirped back, brushing off invisible crumbs from her shirt. “No problem, here, _professor._ ”

_Damn right there wasn’t a problem...as soon as they sorted out the mating business...the first thing he was going to do was take a deep, starved inhale of her rainy scent...then never let her out of his sight._

“Text me the shopping list,” he grumbled and rose to his feet, ignoring the dull ache in his brain from his night of drinking.

“Way ahead of you, as per usual,” Miyo quipped back, sticking out a pink tongue as she shook her phone in his direction.

When his own buzzed inside the pocket of his joggers, he rolled his eyes and tugged it out.

 _“Six?!”_ He exclaimed, broad shoulders slumping down with a deep sigh as he glanced down at her text. “Six fans. You want _six?”_

“Six fans for six windows, obviously~~”

“Fine. The cashier is going to think I’ve gone insane...but fine,” he mumbled, once again rolling his eyes. “Okay, but what the fuck are the chips for? And the chocolate chip cookies? And the cheezies? And the...you know what...no. Just no.”

“For snacking in between sex. Keep the energy up!” Miyo exclaimed, holding a hand to her heart to feign hurt. “You have to get them! My life depends on it, Ukai!”

“Oh, cause you’re going to have time for any of that,” Ukai snarled in challenge, raising a thick eyebrow at the smirking raven. “I don’t think so.”

“You want to bet?” Miyo coyly replied, flashing him a sly wink in return. “I’ll put down a whole bag of cheezies~~”

_He most certainly did._


	41. The Snake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm so sorry this update has taken such a long time. School is putting me through the ringer and I'm also writing another novel in my spare time as well. Updates will be slow sometimes BUT I WONT DROP IT!
> 
> Side note: has anyone seen the Ancient Magus' Bride? It's a pretty good anime-- a bit slow paced, but the animation is BeAUTIFUL so check it out if y'all need something to watch :)
> 
> As for this chapter: 
> 
> I don't want to cover the first "heat" portion of this book with Ukai and Miyo, so it'll be more of a brief cover in the next chapter. Gotta save that stuff for Oikawa and Hajime!
> 
> As far as Kabuto goes...I did not expect this to happen so, surprise! Let's see if an evil man is truly evil while also exposing some Hajime back story! 
> 
> Cheers my loves, 
> 
> Victoria
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Forty One: The Snake**

**Hajime~**

Hajime watched as Oikawa descended the large stone steps in front of the biology building. His chestnut hair was perfectly quaffed, as per usual, and his dark joggers swayed across his narrow hips as he moved. Behind him, various students meandered in front of the large, brick building, as they finished their afternoon classes.

“Hajime~~” Oikawa called with narrow eyes, gritting his teeth in irritation. “Stop looking at me like you’re going to eat me!”

“I’m not,” Hajime grumbled, turning his head to the side in embarrassment.

No matter how much time passed, his lust for the Omega’s slender figure never seemed to go away. It was always present, stirring his instincts from their slumber any time he was near the boy. The first time he slept with Oikawa, or perhaps even before that, he felt a possessiveness that was now ever-present. After the incident with Kabuto, the feeling had only exacerbated-- growing even more personal with the physical reminder on his Omega’s pale face.

“You are,” Oikawa chirped as he swiped at a few stray autumn leaves, fluttering around in the afternoon breeze. “It’s weird.”

“Yeah, well,” he started in response, shuffling from side to side on his white converse. “I can’t help it.”

“You’re meeting Yuji, right?”

“Yeah, after I walk you home.”

“That’s stupid.”

“What is?”

“You’re going to walk me _all_ the way home,” Oikawa remarked, raising a manicured eyebrow. “Then walk _all_ the way back here to meet blondie? I’ll just walk home on my-”

“No,” Hajime interjected with a subconscious growl-- possessive instincts of protection coiling around inside his gut. “It’s fine. I’ll walk with you.”

Oikawa rolled his head back and let out an obvious sigh of frustration, his eyes fluttering closed in annoyance. Hajime scrunched up his nose at the agitated scent, but refused to back down. He hated being away from his Omega and he had no qualms with putting in a bit of extra work to keep them together-- at least, until they formally mated and his permanent scent could ward off all manner of Alpha predators.

“Seriously,” Oikawa said softly, taking an inviting step into his personal space. “I’ll be fine. It’s the early afternoon! I’ve made this walk multiple times before, I don’t need a personal bodyguard now.”

“I understand that, but I don’t-”

“Hajime…” The chestnut Omega continued, grazing his nose along Hajime’s cheek. “Meet up with Yuji. I’ll text you when I get home, okay?”

Hajime felt his body melt into Oikawa’s oceanic scent and an unwitting groan escaped his lips. He nuzzled into his Omega’s scent glands and inhaled deeply, feeling suddenly at ease. The various students, going about their late afternoon classes faded away, leaving only the soft autumn breeze to rustle his brown hair.

“You worry too much…” Oikawa whispered as he playfully nibbled at his ear. “Such a tense Alpha…”

“I worry because…” Hajime tried to reply, but his words trailed off as Oikawa softly kissed up his neck.

 _Was this heaven?_ He felt like he was submerged in a deep and pleasant ocean-- blind to everything but his Omega. _What were they discussing again? Something about...Yuji? Walking...somewhere?_

“Go and meet Yuji…” The chestnut boy murmured before gently kissing him on the lips. “I’ll see you later…”

With those final words, Oikawa turned on his heels and walked away, leaving Hajime stunned in place. His mind was foggy, glazed over by the Omega’s perfect scent that lingered in his nostrils. For a few moments, he stood there on the cobblestone with a _lovey dovey_ look plastered on his face before he was able to gather the disoriented corners of his mind and regain his senses.

 _That little shit,_ he mused with a sly smirk, _using scent warfare to get what he wanted._ While he greatly liked Oikawa’s ability to seduce him into submission, he couldn’t squash the feeling of panic that was setting in his stomach-- a feeling he was becoming well acquainted with lately.

_He had scented Oikawa...his Omega wasn’t walking around unprotected like before...but it wasn’t enough. Perhaps, he should go and--_

“Oi, Hajime!” A familiar voice called out, jerking him out of his internal stewing.

Hajime glanced towards the sound as Bokuto bowled through a few unsuspecting Alphas. He received a few grumbling growls, but nothing more than that. It was no surprise to Hajime that other Alphas shied away from his hearty fragrance. His resting scent was both powerful, overtly obnoxious, and in a near constant state of happy challenge-- _begging_ for a brawl.

_Like some trigger happy lunatic…_

“Hey, hey, hey!” Bokuto yelled as he came to a screeching hault in front of him and shoved large hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I just ran into Oikawa with Keiji and-”

“Is Keiji walking home with him?” Hajime interrupted with a low growl, adjusting his black backpack on his tense shoulders. “They’re together?”

_There was safety in numbers. The Omegas had really drilled that into his head._

“Yeah,” Bokuto replied with a wicked grin, wiggling his eyebrows in understanding. “I was going to skip class to walk Keiji home, but he put up a pretty good fight against me so...”

_Oh, on that, he could relate._

“Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut,” the owl continued, rolling his head back to look up at the cloudless sky. “I resigned when we ran into Oikawa. At least they’re together...makes me feel a bit better...I guess…” He trailed off, then snapped his neck down to look at Hajime with quizzical, yellow eyes. “Wait, aren’t you done class? Why _aren’t_ you walking Oikawa back?”

“I’m meeting Yuji for some stuff,” Hajime droned as he pulled out his phone to check the time.

“Uh…” The owl huffed, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. “You...meeting with... _Yuji…_ ”

“Yeah.”

“ _You_...and...Yuji?”

“What exactly are you questioning here.”

“What _you_ are doing, meeting with Yuji.”

“I’m meeting with a teammate. What’s so-”

“Uh, yeah,” Bokuto chirped, prodding Hajime in the shoulder with a fore finger. “The only time you hang with us is to get-”

“Drunk,” Hajime said with an irritated nod. “Yes, Bokuto, I know.”

He wanted the plan to stay between him and Yuji. The more people they involved, the higher the chance that _certain_ others found out. It was crucial for them to keep both Ukai and the Omegas out of the loop.

 _Well...more the Omegas._ Suga would slit his throat in his sleep-- for better or worse, the silver boy was distinctly attached to his freedom. Hajime was certain that their plan would leave him furious. Yachi would be upset as well, and Oikawa, _god,_ Oikawa would chop his balls off.

“Oi,” Bokuto chirped as he heavily sniffed the air. “What the fuck are you guys planning…you smell...sneaky.”

 _Man,_ Hajime grumbled to himself, _ever since meeting Keiji, he’s really been using his senses better._

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll just follow you,” Bokuto challenged, smirking as he leaned in close to Hajime’s face. “I have alllllll the free time in the world.”

 _Fine. Perhaps, an extra Alpha, especially a dominant one like Bokuto, would be useful._ Plus, the owl _did_ have a personal connection to the ordeal-- even if he didn’t know the whole story behind Keiji, Oikawa, and the disgusting Alphas.

**Ukai~**

Ukai was watching the colourful images on the television when he was suddenly struck with an intense, heavy fragrance that stirred up his insides in a twisted sort of glorious arousal. He snapped his gaze across the room to the office alcove, darkening eyes landing on Miyo’s quivering figure. She slowly whirled her chair on its axis to face him, her emerald eyes heavily clouded with an instinctual fog while her pink lips parted in a quiet pant of sudden need.

“Miyo…” He mumbled, his throat growling in a subconscious thunder. “Are...you…”

The raven Omega rushed to stand, but her legs quaked and she crumbled to her knees, panting into the wooden floor boards. Her fragrance blew out, blasting towards him with unchecked fury-- a sickening combination of Sonny and her own, rainy scent. Ukai scrambled to his feet, his cock suddenly constricted beneath his jeans at the sight of her flushed face and her confusing smell.

“Just. Hang. On.” He snarled out as he hurried to flick on the various fans throughout the large room. “One. Second.”

“Ukai…” Miyo whimpered over the noise of the spinning blades, arching into the floor boards. “Please…come...please…I need you...”

Ukai’s feral nature roared inside his mind at her lustful pleas, bashing against the inside of his skull in furious desire-- egged on by her overbearing fragrance. He moved towards her, fingers fumbling with the nose plug on the glass coffee table. As he notched it in place, he shoved down his instincts with every ounce of his conscious strength. Their presence would only make things more difficult. He needed to keep them in check as long as possible.

 _Be quick, be quick,_ he repeated in mantra to himself, closing the gap between them. He could do this. He _would_ do this.

Miyo clawed at her clothing, furiously shoving off her cotton shirt, then moved her shaky hands down to her grey shorts. Sonny’s scent radiated off of her milky skin, blanketing him with its toxic, angry energy. _Mine. She is mine,_ it cried out in furious possession as it seeped into Ukai’s closed sinus’ through his panting mouth. He swallowed a heavy lump of bile at the challenging scent and he stalled in place, a few feet away from the heat-filled Omega.

“You took your birth control,” he growled out in question, the words coming out in a flurry of deep rumbles.

_Why hadn’t he asked before? Did he need to ask? Why was he asking?_

“ _Yes,”_ Miyo gasped. Her skin was flushed, but her irritation with him for asking was plainly housed in her eyes. “Do...you...think...I’m-”

“Not. Stupid,” Ukai barked as he took a few hesitant steps forward. “Just. Nervous. I’m. Avoiding.”

_He was avoiding. He was...frightened by Sonny’s claim._

Miyo chuckled at his choppy admission. “I'm on...fire. Get...over...it...and...come.”

 _Do it. Just do it,_ Ukai internally commanded with clenched fists-- feeling stronger with Miyo’s verbal faith in him. Logical thoughts were becoming difficult with the thunderous roars of Sonny’s scent, rolling off of the Omega’s trembling form. His shoulders began to bristle against his sweater as his own feral nature leapt to the forefront of his mind.

He had been worried that, when his instincts took control, they would shy away from Miyo’s marked scent and force him to flee…but the opposite happened. They were absolutely delighted with the challenge. Eager to make the raven woman theirs. _Maybe he was an adrenaline junky?_ He smiled to himself at that ridiculous thought and stepped forward.

_His opportunity had finally come._

**Hajime~**

“Yo, how did you find their residence anyways?” Bokuto drawled to Yuji. His large hands were shoved carelessly in his pockets as they strolled down the evening street.

“I used my amazing senses!” Yuji declared with a wry smirk, tapping the tip of his nose.

 _Yeah right,_ Hajime mused as he rolled his eyes. Yuji was as close to an airhead as a person could get... _was what he used to think...but now?_ The blonde Alpha had proven himself as more than just a scrappy punk in his eyes-- especially after witnessing Chaki’s pummeled form in the upstairs hallway of their house.

“Takeru got it for us,” Hajime answered as the group rounded the corner of a dark park. “He nabbed their file from the residence office this morning during his volunteer hours.”

“Little Takeru?!” Bokuto chirped. “Stealing files for a slimy thug like Yuji?! Yeah right.”

“Hey,” Yuji snapped back, giving the owl a playful shove to the side. “We’re childhood friends, alright? And I ain’t slimy. I’m scrappy.”

Hajime tuned out the bickering of his teammates, his stomach churning with anticipated anger. While it was still early in the evening, there were very few students wandering around-- Wednesdays were always quiet. Nobody liked hump day.

When the residence in question came into view, the air around the boys quickly shifted from playful to a quiet seriousness. The large house was covered in dark green siding and the unkempt lawn was strewn with empty cans and bottles from past parties. Hajime briefly wondered how they were able to get away with such an unkempt residence, then shoved the question away. Alphas seemed to get away with a lot of things these days, there was no point in pondering it further.

He and his two teammates had only briefly discussed their plan of action. They were there to give the assailants a friendly reminder. No violence. No deaths. Nothing that could screw up Professor Ukai’s hearing with the Disciplinary committee the following Saturday. _Just...a reminder to stay away._

On his right, Bokuto’s throat rumbled with his eagerness. “You think they’re home? No lights on.”

“We only need one of them to be inside,” Yuji asserted with a nod-- likely hoping that Chaki was the one who would answer the door.

Each of the teammates held savage anger for a different Alpha-- a fact that Hajime had only just realized, and was thankful for. It decreased the chances of a bloody brawl. They could keep each other in check.  

Hajime hopped onto the porch and an automatic light promptly lit as he rapped a hard knuckle on the door. For a few minutes, the three boys were left in tense silence on the veranda-- other than the deep rumblings from their throats. He lightly sniffed the air as he knocked again, cringing away from the old scent of intoxicated, unknown Omegas.

Finally, the black painted door swung open. Beyond, Kabuto stood with a familiar, dark haired Alpha, a few paces behind.

“Can I help you?” He sneered, his large hand white knuckling the edge of a door. His face was still marked with yellowing bruises, but there was no swelling-- aside from the angry, raised skin around a deep cut near his left eye.  

Hajime’s instincts coiled inside him-- urging him to launch into the tattooed man who had harmed _his_ Omega. When he made an unwitting step forward, Yuji placed a hand on his broad shoulder to hold him back. At the touch, he took a deep breath to relax his instincts back into submission. _When did the scrappy kid become so level headed?_

“How are your injuries?” Yuji remarked to Kabuto, over Hajime’s shoulder. His words were soft, but the tone beneath them was as cutting as shards of glass-- a sneaky reminder of the damage that he and his teammates had unleashed upon the green house Alphas.  

“Healing,” Kabuto snapped back, his body stiff with agitation. “How are _your_ Omegas?”

 _Scarred_ , Hajime thought with a low snarl, _in more ways than one._ He clenched a fist at his side, willing himself to not fall for such an obvious chirp. He was plainly aware that Kabuto was a master at verbal manipulation and there was no doubt in his mind that the man was aware of the benefits of a baited fight-- the Disciplinary Committee would dismiss the entire case as a common turf war between Alphas and all hope of expulsion would be lost.

“Healing,” Bokuto said, using Kabuto’s own response as a chirp. The owl’s entire disposition was loose and casual, but Hajime could smell the dark rage, seeping off his skin.

For a moment, there was only tense silence between the surly men. The dark haired one, who Hajime recognized as Nishinoya’s attacker, moved to stand next to Kabuto, blocking their sight of anything inside the green house.

“What do you want,” Kabuto barked at last through narrowed eyes as he ran a hand across his own jawline. Up close, his knuckles held slow healing scabs from their vicious altercation.

“A _friendly_ warning,” Bokuto remarked with a shrug before leaning back casually on the porch railing. “For you to stay away.”

Kabuto laughed at that. A stomach churning, rage inducing, laugh. “Stay away from your sweet, sweet Omegas? That’s a heavy request, owl.”

Again, Hajime moved forward to unconsciously attack, but Yuji’s hand increased its grip on his shoulder. “Yes,” the blonde Alpha seethed through clenched teeth-- his lean body vibrating as he fought his own instincts. “It _is_ a heavy request, snake.”

“Here’s the deal,” Bokuto remarked as he pushed off the railing and moved to stand beside his teammates. “If we hear or smell that you’ve been near _any_ of our Omegas, then we’ll have a problem.”

“You trying to threaten us?” The dark haired Alpha finally spoke in a deep, husky voice. “A bunch of fluffy volleyball players? _Really?”_

Hajime bit his tongue to stop himself from speaking. His instincts had already moved him to attack. _Twice._  It was now very obvious to him that it was in his best interest to stay quiet, for now, or the entire conversation would devolve into a physical altercation. The one thing they needed to avoid above all else.

For the first time in his life, he found himself willing to let Bokuto to take lead-- more than a little impressed with the owl’s casual body language under such tense circumstances.

Bokuto chuckled darkly and narrowed his eyes. “Our little altercation proves that _we’re_ the more fit group. Or did you already forget who won? Did we beat your brains so hard that you’ve lost your memories?”

Kabuto’s lips curled back in a snarl. “I think you’re overstepping a bit with your _perceived_ victory.”

Yuji growled to speak, but Bokuto was quick to cut him off. “Oh really? I seem to remember that you guys attacked with the notion that we were out of the house,” he put forth, yellow eyes twinkling with dark humor. “Or am I _overstepping_ with that, too?”

Kabuto lunged forward and grabbed Bokuto by the collar of his grey hoodie, shoving him back against a heavy wooden post on the veranda. In a mere moment, Hajime’s instincts flared up at the sudden attack on his fellow pack member, but as he moved to intervene, he caught Bokuto’s golden eyes and stopped short.

 _Don’t,_ they said, in more warning than command. Hajime stiffened and glanced over his shoulder at Yuji. His blonde friend’s eyes were glued to the dark haired Alpha, stiff as a board at the edge of the front doorway-- innately trusting that Bokuto knew what he was doing.

“I’ll take that as a no, then,” Bokuto said in near whisper and made no struggle to push back against Kabuto’s hold.

Hajime met the owl’s flickering eyes once more and the owl’s scent pooled inside his nostrils. _No violence. Warning. Calm down_. The words rang out from his packmate’s scent, doing well to cool his roaring instincts like ice on a wound. “We’re not here to fight,” he growled, dark eyes glued to Bokuto-- the strange lifeline for his sanity. “Don’t initiate something you can’t finish, _Kabuto_.”

Kabuto’s gaze darted to his face and he remained silent for a moment before dropping Bokuto’s sweater from his hands. His jaw worked furiously, grinding his teeth as he stepped back towards the siding of the house. “Terms,” he snapped out at last, crossing his tattooed arms over his chest. “What are they.”

“Your _pack_ doesn’t come near our residence. You don’t come within smelling range of our Omegas. You don’t send other Alphas to do your bidding, either,” Hajime rattled off with a hot snarl as he moved closer to Bokuto’s now tense form. “We smell you and you’re done.”

“We’ll have to talk to Chaki,” the dark haired Alpha growled in reply, but his hazel eyes flickering over to Kabuto-- looking for direction.

Hajime and Bokuto both rolled their eyes at the words-- annoyed by the rigid pack hierarchy that the green house Alphas, and most other Alpha friends, employed. Hajime and his teammates never fell prey to such an outdated, animalistic notion. Both Daichi and Ukai had always been adamant that hierarchy should be as fluid as situations were. No single Alpha was equipped to make decisions for everyone else-- and the current affair was clear evidence of that ideology.

Hajime had one of the most, if not _the_ most, dominant scent in the yellow house, but he was rarely the one to take charge. The current circumstances, with Bokuto and Yuji, would normally have him as lead, but he was too emotionally involved with Kabuto present. Bokuto was in a much better state than he was. The owl was more detached and able to use his playful nature to hold his instincts in check. Hajime knew that it would be idiotic to use his domineering scent to make Bokuto back down. Right now, he was the weak link, and he was all too aware of that fact.  

“Oh, don’t play _that_ card,” Yuji snapped at Kabuto. “Don’t try to jerk us around. You and I both know that you’re the boss around here.”

Bokuto’s yellow eyes slightly widened at the sudden accusation and Hajime’s brows furrowed slightly. Oikawa and Keiji had made it very clear that Chaki was the _Alpha_ of the shitty group. _Had something shifted since their altercation?_ _No_. Yuji was implying that Kabuto had _always_ been the leader...

Kabuto laughed again at Yuji’s audacity and his body language relaxed slightly. “You think _I’m_ the head Alpha around here? What, Chaki is just a willing figurehead or something?”

“No,” Yuji retorted with his own smirk. “I think you’re just using him and he’s too stupid to see it. For whatever reason, you aren’t a fan of the spotlight.”

 _Kabuto...using Chaki?_ Hajime took a moment to piece things together, but came up short. From the wide eyes on Bokuto’s sharp face, he wasn’t the only one lost in what Yuji was insinuating.

“You’re right. I _don’t_ like being the center of attention,” Kabuto replied with a slight nod at the blonde Alpha-- a strange nod of respect. “You’re the only one out of your little pack who got a good sniff at both of us, eh? I pegged you as an idiot, but you’re sharper than I thought.”

 _Sniff at both of who?_ Hajime thought as his eyes darted between the tattooed man and his smaller lacky in the doorway. Then, everything snapped together in his mind. Chaki, the loud mouth with obviously violent tendencies. Kabuto, coy and manipulative. The drug deals that Keiji had mentioned. Oikawa’s underground lifestyle where he had met the green house group.

“He’s your fall man,” Hajime declared, nearly laughing at his sudden realization. He hated that he was impressed with the tattooed man’s sneaky ploy-- hated it more than anything that he admired the snake. “He’s the perfect fall man. He’s proud and stupid.”

“Jacky,” Kabuto remarked without tearing his gaze from Hajime. “Go and watch the block for Chaki. Call when they’re within a block.”

Without another word, Jacky pushed forward, brushing past Yuji, and hopped down onto the front lawn. Bokuto snorted at the dark Alpha’s willingness to obey and leaned back against the wooden post.

“We’ll stay away from your Omegas, you have my word. I never intended to attack them in the first place,” Kabuto stated with a heavy sigh-- one that seemed to be full of... _regret._ “Sometimes, Chaki can be a pain in the ass to handle. Especially when the other dumb pack members agree with him. Gives him more power than I’d like to admit.”

Hajime’s hot instincts flared up again. _Lies. Manipulative lies._ Kabuto not only gravely injured Oikawa, but used rampant emotional abuse against his Omega, as well. That was Hajime’s truth-- not this _convenient_ little story.

“Liar,” he snarled, feeling his lips curl back over his teeth. “You manipulative _liar.”_

Kabuto didn’t flinch. “Hajime, I like you. You’re hard edged. Actually, all of your Alphas are, but you, you’re tough to the bone. You’d be a good second in command.”

Hajime’s feral nature momentarily froze in confusion at the unwitting compliment. “Excuse me?” He retorted, flabbergasted.

Bokuto put a large hand on his shoulder, sensing Hajime’s renewed desire to attack. “Why did you hit up our place, then,” he asked through narrow eyes. “I find your claims hard to believe, with the damage you caused to our Omegas, and my teammates.”

Hajime nearly went wild at the owl’s remark on the Omegas-- his fractured mind was already crawling with instinctual fury. Oikawa’s damaged face flashed inside his mind and he felt a roar curl inside his throat, but it quickly dissipated when he saw Kabuto shift his stance. The tattooed man slouched down his shoulders and angled his neck slightly to the side, exposing soft skin covered in black tattoos. A posture that submitted to Hajime’s Alpha instincts. It was purposeful. Done out of respect... _or manipulation._ Hajime'shead swirled around with more confusion and his feral nature calmed. 

“If we _wanted_ to take your Omegas, why the _fuck_ would I hang around in your backyard and converse with Oikawa until you guys got there?” Kabuto questioned with bright eyes.  

“Who knows about it?” Yuji interjected. His questioning tone was suspicious, but open to debate.

“About my little operation with Chaki?” Kabuto asked and, when Yuji nodded, he continued. “Jime and Jacky. That’s it.”

“How many in your pack?” Yuji pushed on, asking things that Hajime had never even thought about.

“More than in yours. More than you saw last weekend,” Kabuto replied with a casual shrug.

“So, you’re saying that your emotional manipulation of _my_ Omega was, what, to help us? You were buying time for us to return?” Hajime said with a quiet, seething snarl.  

He was confused beyond belief and did not want to accidentally fall into Kabuto’s snake trap-- _but was it trap? When did their simple plan of threatening the disgusting Alphas turn into a Nancy Drew novel?_

“Alright, look,” Kabuto said with a sigh as he rolled his neck to loosen the muscles. “You want me to explain _everything?”_

“Yes,” Bokuto commanded, but his yellow eyes shone with the same interest that Hajime hated himself for feeling.

“Is it going to be a waste of my time?” The tattooed man scoffed. “Are you even going to believe a word out of my mouth?”

“That depends on the nature of what you say,” Hajime rebuffed.

He didn’t want to be here-- giving the benefit of the doubt to the monster who had manipulated, and physically damaged, his Omega. He had heard Keiji’s recount of Oikawa’s past. He had heard the emotional abuse on the chestnut boy with his own ears. _What was there to question?_

“Keiji says that there are always two sides to every story,” Bokuto leaned in to quietly growl in his ear-- likely smelling his conflicted scent. “Understand your enemy’s motivations...right?”

Good advice, but it struck a guilty chord inside of Hajime’s heart that left him slouched.

“You gonna explain now, or what?” He grumbled, upset with himself for even standing there, in front of Kabuto. Standing in front of the snake, and not attacking.

Kabuto jerked up a manicured eyebrow, but ignored Hajime’s hostile tone. “Chaki’s a monster. I think we can _all_ agree on that. I use him because he’s unapologetically violent. And he has that type of unearned pride that, if things with my... _operation..._ were to go south, would make it easy to turn the blame on him.”

“Operation, meaning drugs,” Hajime said, in more statement than question.

“Yes,” Kabuto replied through gritted teeth-- obviously unhappy to be divulging the precious information to outsiders. “He’s _mostly_ easy to manage, but sometimes, I have to bend my plans to suit his stupid whims.”

Yuji’s throat rumbled and he clenched his fists at his sides. “Yachi.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck his deal with her is. He’s obsessed, and not in a good way. I also...don’t approve of his treatment of her,” Kabuto said with a hard growl that seemed oddly genuine, but Hajime ignored it with ease-- remembering the terrible things the tattooed demon had done to Oikawa. “The shithead burned down their house with a couple of the other boys. Not my orders, believe me. It was a fucking mess for me to clean up.”

 _Not his orders,_ Hajime mused as he ground his teeth, _seriously?_

“Ask your Omegas if I was there that night,” Kabuto stated after inhaling Hajime’s challenging scent. “You know how much of a pain it was to fucking bribe the Committee? It's a lot of money, and I don’t like spending my hard earned cash on such inconsequential things. Plus, the nest was mostly innocent...aside from Oikawa. He kicked into Chaki pretty good.”

Bokuto snorted, but remained silent and Hajime couldn’t think of anything to say. _Had that been...admiration...in Kabuto’s tone? Admiration for Oikawa...beating the shit out of Chaki?_

Kabuto shook his head, as if remembering a humorous event, and looked past them into the front yard. “I’ve learned, _very recently,_  that, when it comes to Yachi, Chaki is _impossible_ to reason with,” he recalled before flashing Yuji with an apologetic look that rattled Hajime’s conviction. “So, when I found out that he was actually using his brain to raid your house...to attack you when the house was most exposed...Jacky and I decided that we could, _maybe,_ stall things a bit. I know you might find it hard to believe, but I don't condone unnecessary violence against Omegas. My best option was to throw a wrench in his idiotic plan and throw our lot in with the inevitable discliplinary meeting and yet _another_ fucking bribe."

“Yeah fucking right,” Bokuto barked with a roll of his golden eyes. “If you’re the real leader here, you could have stopped it if you _really_ didn’t want it to happen.”

“No…” Hajime said in nearly a whisper-- internally frightened that he could understand Kabuto’s twisted perspective. “Is...your pack is what, thirty members?”

Kabuto rattled a hand in the air to indicate, _around there,_ and Hajime continued.

“All thirty are involved in your drug ring, then?”

“Yes. At various levels.”

“And only _two_ know about you being the mastermind behind everything?”

“I don’t trust easily.”

“So, if you openly assert dominance over Chaki, your little drug ring goes to hell,” Bokuto asserted, casting Hajime an understanding look. “Or, you lose face and its game over anyways.”

“I wouldn’t say _little,_ and yeah, the pack would probably split into messy factions,” Kabuto reckoned with a sly shrug. “Or, I say nothing and just assume that Chaki’s actions will drag us through the Disciplinary Committee again. Both situations were not ideal, but one option was slightly better than the other. Higher success rate, at least.”

“Oh, poor you. What a tough situation,” Yuji said, his tone liquid sarcasm.

Hajime inwardly groaned. It _was_ a difficult position, with very few options. _Why...why was he sympathizing with this monster?_ Kabuto was a drug kingpin. A manipulative snake. Violent towards Omegas, even if he denied it. Just like Hajime’s own family...

_Kabuto...reminded him of his own father._

He shivered at the realization and shoved away the flurry of banished memories it brought forth. _He hated his father. He could hate Kabuto, too._

“I’m not trying to convince you that I’m a fucking saint, Hajime,” Kabuto cautioned. “I am the monster you think I am. I’ve hurt Oikawa, in more ways than one, but he’s not the first and he won’t be the last. I am well aware that my actions are cruel. Sometimes, it’s necessary.”

 _Stop,_ Hajime thought as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, _stop talking, please._ The words were all too familiar-- he had heard them many times as a boy.

“I grouped up with Chaki and made sure that Jime was with us out back to help me keep an eye. And I was fucking _pleased_ that you,” Kabuto paused, nodding at Yuji’s tense figure. “Were kicking around in the backyard. And that you were attached to Yachi. It helped us stall. A lot.”

 _Stop talking._ Hajime didn’t want to listen any longer. Rage against Kabuto was easier than trying to understand his sociopathic perspective-- and it frightened him that he even could.  

“Jime and I stalled as long as possible by, admittedly, dragging Oikawa through the ringer. Jacky didn’t really have a leg to stand on out front, but, we knew that Morio and Emon would be mouthy enough to drag things on for a while. So any actions Jacky made against your Omegas were to save face with our pack. Nothing more,” he paused, chuckling under his breath. "As I said, we were always going to be fucked with the University Committee. Sure, we might get expelled, but I can keep my pack together if that happens."

“I did find it weird,” Bokuto mused, then clenched his shoulders at his sudden thought. “That you guys never picked up a few of the Omegas and slipped away before we got there...but still," he paused, growling under his breath. "If I see Jime again, I'll slaughter him for what he did to _my_ Omega. I don't care that he's one of your little supporters." 

Hajime growled at that and Kabuto showed his neck once again, calming him with another submissive stance.

“I can’t speak for what happened out front,” Kabuto said pointedly, bright eyes fixed on Hajime. “But, I apologize for what happened out back. And for Jime's actions.”

_Apologize? APOLOGIZE? He sliced up Oikawa’s face...nearly killed him._

“You’re a liar,” Hajime seethed and took a booming step forward to grab Kabuto by the front of his black shirt. Then, he shoved the snake hard against the siding, receiving no fight in return. “Do you know what you did to him? You nearly _killed_ him. You _slashed_ his face. YOU THREW HIM AGAINST A METAL FAUCET!”

Hajime could feel his insides squirming with possessive anger. His shoulders rose and fell with large breaths of vengeful air. He snapped his teeth at Kabuto’s impassive face and gripped the edges of the shirt tighter. They were the same build, the same height, and their scents were so close in level of dominance-- it shook Hajime to the core.

_Oikawa certainly had a type..._

_No,_ he commanded to himself, _his relationship with Oikawa was not fueled by drugs. There was nothing to compare._

“I know,” Kabuto stated quietly without looking away. “But nothing I say will change what you think about that.”

There was a subtle tone of... _regret._..in the soft admission that Hajime did _not_ like. But he pushed the subject further-- desiring the truth.

“Why,” he snapped at the man in his grasp, body shaking with white fury. “Why did you…fuck...why did you...”

“It was...unintentional.”

 _Unintentional...was he fucking kidding?_ Hajime’s entire body tensed, ready to attack, to kill, but Bokuto grabbed him by his jacket and yanked. He stumbled back into his teammate’s chest and snarled as he regained his footed. Then, he shoved the owl in the chest, his nostrils flaring with resentment. As he turned on his heels to renew his attack at Kabuto, Yuji stepped in between him and the tattooed man. Kabuto’s eyes remained fixed on him, but they danced with a subtle surprise at Yuji’s sudden movement.

“Move,” Hajime snarled at his blonde teammate. “Move, or I’ll tear you down, too.”

“No violence,” Yuji reiterated with his own growl. “Warning. Only. We agreed.”

“YOU DEFEND HIM? AFTER WHAT HE’S DONE?” Hajime roared. His mind was a storm of crimson thoughts that all ended with Kabuto’s head on the end of a spike.

“Stop your little hissy fit,” Bokuto chirped, slapping him across the back of the head-- like a father scolding his child. “Aren’t you supposed to have super human control over your instincts? Get it the fuck together.”  

Hajime turned and swiped at empty air where Bokuto’s hand had just been. “You fucking think that-”

“Listen to me, Hajime,” the owl implored, his mouth set in a hard line. “You have a _lot_ of control over your instincts, so maybe you can’t relate. But...look...we all lose...control...sometimes. Especially when our own life is on the line.”

Hajime regarded his friend, searching his golden eyes for the honesty beneath them. “You really believe that shit? You think the he _accidentally_ smashed Oikawa’s head into a metal spout?!” He snapped out-- enraged the Bokuto would give the idea merit.

“I honestly don’t know. I’m just telling you that it’s possible. Take it from someone who... _knows_. Who’s been there...”

Hajime’s throat rumbled, angry that the idea wasn’t as far-fetched as he would have liked. _Had Kabuto really gone into survival mode? Did it even matter?_

Kabuto moved forward and bumped Yuji out of the way, receiving a threatening snarl from the blonde Alpha in return. “My pack won’t threaten you any longer,” he affirmed through a clenched jaw, eyes locking on Hajime once more. “On campus, or off. You have my word.”

“And what good is your word?” Hajime barked, body visibly shaking from head to toe.

“Good, if you find yourself believing even a tiny part of what I’ve divulged to you.”

There it was. Kabuto’s stupid, frustrating, guilt-inducing, impeccable logic. He knew that the tattooed man had _no_ reason to spill any of this information-- other than to reach an understanding with the yellow house Alphas.

Only, Hajime didn’t want an _understanding_ , he wanted _blood_.

“The...unwanted events at your residence have...proved to me that it’s time to switch things up,” Kabuto added, pausing to find the correct words. “I _will_ give you a...friendly warning...though.”

“Oh?” Bokuto spouted with a raised eyebrow. “Not a threat, I hope?”

“No. Not a threat,” Kabuto assured with a small, genuine smile that churned Hajime’s gut. “I cannot speak for Chaki. My takeover will have to be slow and methodical, so I can’t guarantee that he won’t attack again before I’ve ousted him.”

Hajime snorted. _Convenient. ‘You have my word that my pack won’t attack...but also...they might attack!’_

“But, I will give you an early warning if he's planning anything,” Kabuto continued.

The snake’s bright eyes were still fixed on Hajime. He met the steady gaze, searching for deceit in their icy depths, but found none.  

“How,” he asked through clenched teeth-- frustrated that the manipulative man had, once again, thwarted his anger by offering to warn them.  

“Text,” Kabuto offered up, but the tone wasn’t a suggestion. Another speck of proof that Hajime and his teammates were not the masters in the conversation.

Yuji pulled his phone from the pocket of his joggers and clicked it on. “My phone. I have the most to be concerned about.”

“Agreed,” Bokuto chimed in with a nod.

Hajime could feel the owl’s gaze boring into his back, watching for another attack. As much as he hated it, he had to admit that Bokuto was the champion of the evening. Hajime would have slit Kabuto’s throat the moment he opened the door and, while he regretted the missed opportunity, he knew that it was for the best.

He was still _very_ wary of Kabuto’s divulged secrets but, if he couldn’t attack right now, he could at least keep the snake close and wait until he could.


	42. Game On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I knoooooooow, a set up chapter...I knowwwwww.
> 
> Also, thank you to Lina_Miramel for pointing out a continuity error in the last chapter. <3
> 
> I have gone back and changed it. Now, Kabuto's actions were entirely done to save face with his pack. Plus, facing the Disciplinary Committee was a better gamble than the factionalism that would occur if he challenged Chaki's leadership. 
> 
> Cheers!!!!!
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Forty Two: Game On**

**Oikawa~**

Wednesday evening had gone by with a flash of piled up homework and Thursday morning was quickly ushered in. There was a lot of unseen tension between Daichi and Suga, but Oikawa had agreed with Keiji that it was still too soon to approach their silver friend about the sudden breakup. Plus, he was more concerned with Hajime’s strange and volatile mood.

Normally, he wouldn’t care where the Alpha went in his spare time, but the confused and hostile scent he exuded after arriving home held Oikawa's curiosity. It was strange-- Hajime was always conscientious of his Alpha fragrance and bragged about his seemingly _perfect_ control over it. Things got even more interesting when Oikawa had realized that the Alpha had been hanging around, not only Yuji, but also Bokuto-- teammates he rarely interacted with outside of volleyball.

And then there was the smell-- Hajime’s fragrance had been soapy and clean from the very moment he walked back into the yellow house. Overly clean... _like he was hiding something._ Even the night’s sex had been peculiar-- much more possessive and angry than normal.

Oikawa had tried to push the issue and find answers, but was met with the classic iron wall of Hajime feelings. That was how the entire night had progressed. Him verbally pushing, Hajime vocally shoving back.

He shook his head at the recollection, then hazarded a glance at the slumbering Alpha in question, sprawled out beneath a grey comforter next to him. He blew a stray piece of chestnut hair from his face and looked to the morning sun, streaming through the open windows. Maybe, he should just let the entire thing go. At least...until it wasn’t as fresh it Hajime’s mind. Then, he could pull out some much needed answers. He was never one to just let things slide.

With that thought in mind, he stretched up towards the ceiling and carefully shuffled out of the warm bed. Pulling on a white shirt and black cloth shorts, he stumbled over his stray backpack and cursed under his breath at his stubbed toe. Hajime’s clean freak attitude held a bit of merit... _just a bit._

When he stepped into the main floor, he was greeted with Shoyo’s bouncing form-- yanking on a pair of black sneakers next to a very impatient Tobio, tapping his foot.

“Oikawa!” The ginger exclaimed, seemingly out of breath from his task. “You’re up late!”

Oikawa gave his energized friend a skeptical look. “I don’t have class until the afternoon, and my face hurts so I might skip anyways.”

Tobio’s face flickered with a subtle hint of protective anger, but it quickly dissipated as soon as it had arrived. “Hinata, hurry up. I have an exam."

Shoyo ignored Tobio’s obvious irritation and continued to direct himself to Oikawa. “We’ll see you at the gym tonight for volleyball?! I’m so excited!”

“Yes, yes,” Oikawa affirmed as he waved a lazy hand in front of his chest. “Six, right?”

A giant figure popped out in front of a nearby front window, hitting the glass with an audible bang. Oikawa jumped up, startled by the sudden noise, then chuckled at both the source and Tobio’s shocked face.

“DON’T BE LATE,” Bokuto yelled through the translucent pane and jabbed a finger at the glass, leaving large fingerprints. “WE ONLY HAVE IT FOR THREE HOURS.”

“Christ, Bokuto,” Keiji drawled as he walked into the entryway from the blue kitchen. “I leave you alone for five minutes…can’t you behave?”

“Your boyfriend is such a little shit disturber~~” Oikawa sarcastically remarked to his passing friend.

“He’s not my…” Keiji started to reply, but trailed off with a classic eye roll. “Go to class. Don’t be such a baby about your scar.”

Oikawa pursed his lips and swatted at the icy Omega as he scrambled out the front door. “You little shit! You want a sympathy wound!? I’ll give you one!”

“No thanks!” Keiji called back with a wave as he jogged across the yard. “And go to class!”  

Bokuto gave Oikawa a _sorry about him_ shrug, then ran across the green lawn to catch up with his Omega.

“Little bastard…” Oikawa huffed under his breath as he closed the door on Tobio and Shoyo. “I swear to christ. One of these days…”

A familiar, motherly voice chimed in as he shuffled on his feet towards the kitchen. “He’s not _that_ bad. At least he doesn’t try to avoid talking about your scar, like everyone else does.”

His gaze flickered past the turquoise couch and into the dining room, eyes searching for the owner of the voice. Suga was reading a newspaper while munching carelessly on a piece of jam toast at the oak dining table. His scent was plain, but Oikawa could smell the hidden turmoil beneath.

“Yeah, whatever,” Oikawa remarked, knowing the nest mother was absolutely correct. He could get his arm hacked off arm and Keiji would chirp him about it as he was bleeding out on a sidewalk. “Don’t you have class? What are you doing home?”

“Yeah…” Suga replied with a sweet smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I just...needed some time alone, so I’m skipping. I’m turning into such a bad student~~”

“Ah,” Oikawa nodded as he casually slid into a vacant chair across from his friend. “Alone time in the house. Without Daichi. Got it.”

Suga all but flinched at the name and Oikawa’s heart tugged inside his chest. He knew very little of the reasons behind the sudden break up, but he could hazard a couple of pretty good guesses. The primary one being that Suga was, and always had been, absolutely stubborn in his ways. With that in mind, Oikawa couldn’t help but feel bad for Daichi-- the most patient Alpha he had ever met could not measure up to such an impossible task-- Suga's determined nature.

“Is it just a bit of time apart. Or is it-”

“Permanent,” Suga quickly finished the sentence, shifted uncomfortably in his chair, then gazed out the open back door-- hazel eyes lingering on the something unseen. “Definitely permanent.”

“I see…guess you’re not coming to volleyball, then? Not that Daichi's going to be there anyways...”

“No,” Suga murmured, seemingly lost in thought. “I think I need some time alone. I’m going to the library, then gonna hit the hay early. I have a make up quiz tomorrow.”

Oikawa knew from Suga’s small, strained scent that it would be unwise to push the topic any further. Once Miyo and Ukai finished their... _ahem_... _affairs._..he could phone up for some advice. Their professor _was_ Suga’s idol, after all. She would know what to do.

**Tobio~**

Tobio watched through narrow eyes as Shoyo struggled, _again,_  with his sneakers. It was strange how uncoordinated the kid was-- whenever they bumped the volleyball around in the yard, he was surprisingly adept, but with all other things, he was hopelessly clumsy. Not that Tobio would _ever_ admit that he was even halfway decent with a volleyball...no need to pump his tires any more than necessary. 

Tobio watched the struggles for a few more seconds, then moved to give the Omega both a lecture and a hand, when a stray volleyball hit him in the side of the head. It peeled off his skin, still tender from the fight, and he clenched his teeth, snapping his dark eyes to the enemy that had hit it.

“Sorrrrrrrrrry~” Oikawa called from across the net, sticking out a playful tongue. “That was an accident! I swear, Tobiooooo! I’m still warming up my arm.”

 _Yeah right an accident_. Tobio’s eyes had been glued to the chestnut boy for more than a few minutes-- the annoying Omega had skills. Especially his serves. His sets were good, but his serves were _phenomenal_. It rattled Tobio to his very core. Even thinking about being on the receiving end of one stiffened his muscles.

He didn’t grace Oikawa with a response and instead snapped his head back to Shoyo. “Are you ready yet? Hurry up already,” he barked, standing up from the plastic bench, volleyball in hand.

“Always in suuuuuuuch a hurry,” Shoyo retorted as he tied off his lace. Tobio tossed the ball towards him and he caught it with small hands.

This had become a _thing_ between them lately-- the little ginger Omega poking at him, trying to get a rise of his ever present temper. At first, he had hated it, but now, he actually _enjoyed_ the playful prodding.

He had never felt lonely before the nest, he enjoyed solitude, but more and more he was finding himself unable to imagine a time before the Omegas-- before the ginger menace, jumping up and down on the shiny wood floor a few paces away.

“What do you want to do for warm up,” he asked, but his tone held no upward inflection. He already knew the answer.  

“Mmm,” Shoyo mumbled as he squirted a splash of cold water into his mouth from a red bottle. “Spikeeeeees?”

 _Yep, of course._ The kid had a one track mind, not that Tobio cared much. He actually liked that Shoyo was able to keep up with his fast paced sets. It was no easy feat. Although, he had to admit that their practices with the net in their backyard didn’t _exactly_ measure up to the feeling of a regular court. The net height was different, and then there was the sweet sound of the ball hitting the hard floor-- _Shoyo would probably like that sound._

A small smile flickered across his lips at the thought of the orange Omega-- his vibrant eyes lit up as he smashed the ball down on the other side of a real court.

_Wait...why was...why was he thinking of something like that?_

Tobio's lips stiffened and his eyes widened in quiet panic as an unusual feeling of affection spread across his chest. The little ginger kid was starting to get under his skin in ways he was _not_ comfortable with.

More than once in the past few days he had been slow to wake up, only to find a burst of energy after inhaling Shoyo’s breezy fragrance at breakfast. This morning, he had actually _craved_ it, so much so that he had arrived downstairs fifteen minutes earlier than normal just to get his fix. _Oh god,_ he thought frantically, _was it going to get even worse?!_

“Tobio. Tobiiiiiiioooo,” an eager voice called out to him, slowly pulling him back to reality with its happy tones. “Are you even listening to me? Sheesh, stop daydreaming already. You hounded me about my shoes and now that I’m ready, you just zone out? What’s with you,” Shoyo chastised, then reached out to tug at his wrist.

Sparks shot through Tobio's skin at the warm contact of the Omega’s small hand and he sucked in a small breath of clean air. His body stiffened as his heart shuddered, feeling more alive and energized than he could physically manage. He felt like he was going to have a heart attack.

“Line up at the net,” he barked as he yanked his wrist away in a hurry. “Toss me the ball to set, then line up to spike.”

“Okay, bossy,” Shoyo said through pursed lips as he jogged towards the center of the court. “It’s not like we haven’t been doing this for weeks...sheesh.”

Tobio ignored the coy chirp and strode towards the back line, staring down at his wrist as he walked. He rotated it around in the air-- the unfamiliar and pleasant feeling still lingered, but it was quickly disappearing into nothing.

_What the fuck was that?_

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto had been aggitated since the encounter with Kabuto the previous day, but he was in _much_ better shape than Hajime-- his snarky teammate was a swirling bubble of frustration and rage. _Poor Oikawa,_ he mused as he held open the glass doors of the gym for Keiji, _Hajime was not easy to manage when he was irritated._ At least they could blow off some steam with a bit of volleyball-- Bokuto had really, really missed their practices lately. He loved Keiji with every ounce of his being, and enjoyed the other Omegas as well, but Alpha time was important, too. Especially the kind that involved physical activity.

When he and Keiji waltzed into the medium sized practise gym, he was tackled by a wiley Kuroo.

“Oi!” The rooster chirped, holding him in a playful headlock. “You’re LATE. And after _all_ your bullshitting to us about being on time~~”

Bokuto growled, then shoved the taller man off. “Shut up. Class ran late, okay? Where's Kenma?”

"You think he'd play volleyball just for fun?" Kuroo drawled, running a large hand through his black hair. "Yeah fucking right."

Next to them, a volleyball whooshed through the air and landed inside the court, just grazing the back line. Bokuto followed it back to Oikawa, who flashed him a cheeky grin and wiggled his eyebrows. Bokuto’s eyes shone with stars-- _holy shit, what an amazing serve!_

“Hey, chestnut!” He called out as he shoved Kuroo out of the way to jog closer to the slender Omega. “What the fuck? You’ve got a cannon for an arm!”

“It’s fucked, right?” Hajime grumbled on his left, tossing a volleyball up and down in the air. “Did _not_ expect it.”

Bokuto chuckled, smelling Hajime’s impressed scent leak off his sweaty skin. “It’s better than Tobios! I’m pleasantly surprised~~”

“Watch it,” the dark Alpha called out in warning before setting up a perfect toss to Shoyo. “Mine is still better than yours is.”

Bokuto ignored the quip and his eyes widened as the ginger Omega launched up to the net and hovered for a moment, almost as if he were floating, before slamming the ball down on the opposite court at a sharp angle.

“YEAH!” Shoyo shouted with a clenched fist, then high fived his equally excited setter.

 _Jesus christ,_ Bokuto mused with a large grin, _the Omegas weren’t half bad._

“Hey, Oikawa!” Nishinoya yelled across the court, eyes sparkling with anticipation. “Fire one of those cannons at me.”

Bokuto stepped over to the side benches and parked himself next to Asahi and Hajime to watch the play unfold. Oikawa threw the white ball and launched forward with astonishing speed, then his body rose up into the air. As he jumped, his hand made hard impact with the globe and it rang out at the impact-- spinning across the court towards Nishinoya’s squatted figure. When the spitfire Omega received it, launching the ball up in the air with perfected ease, Bokuto’s breath caught in his throat.

_Half bad didn’t even cover it. They were good enough to play on an Alpha team._

The evening went on without a hitch. Bokuto and the other Alphas found themselves permanently impressed with the Omegas. He had always considered the sex to be athletically weaker than their counterparts, but he was now painfully aware that it was just a stereotype. There should be Omega teams at the University level.. _.or even mixed teams._

Keiji could set almost as well as their prodigy, Tobio. Yamaguchi’s float serves, which he had practiced a great deal with Tsukishima, were making waves-- though they still needed a bit of practice. Oikawa was all around good-- so good, that Bokuto wanted the snappy chestnut on their team. Nishinoya, too. The kid was an exceptional libero and used his small size to his advantage.

Then there was Shoyo. The ginger was...something else altogether. No one, absolutely no one, on Bokuto’s team could keep up with their pensive setter...but Shoyo could. Plus, his spikes were like something out of a video game. His vertical was unbelievably high, his work ethic was astounding, and his scent was invigorating to those around him-- something which Bokuto was already keenly aware of.

*******

“Hey,” Asahi puffed out during a water break between practise matches. “Can I borrow your car next weekend?”

Bokuto squirted some water into his mouth and licked his lips. “Why? Got a hot date?”

Asahi rolled his eyes at the quip-- everyone in the house knew that the gentle giant was having trouble nailing down Nishinoya. It was an open line to make fun of the bunned man.

“I’m taking Noya to meet my family next weekend. We’re going to stay over.”

Bokuto wiggled an eyebrow and wiped the sweat of his brow onto Kuroo’s red shirt.

“The fuck Bokuto, don’t touch me with that shit!” The rooster barked, swatting at his hands.

“You hearing this shit, Kuroo? Asahi is _finally_ taking the leap!” He rattled off to his irritated friend, a playful grin plastered on his face.

At his words, the rooster gave Bokuto one final jab in the kidney and turned to face Asahi. “Finally. At long last, I can rest easy now. Die a happy man.”

“Alright, alright,” Asahi whined as he waved his large hands out in front. “Can I borrow the car, or are you gonna drag this out more.”

“Sure,” Bokuto said with a shrug, then winked. “If your team beats us in the next game.”

“Oh for fucks-”

“I think that’s fair,” Nishinoya chimed in, wiping a towel over his sweaty hair. “You guys don’t stand a chance, anyways.”

“Big words for such a shrimp,” Kuroo chirped after a failed attempt at ruffling the spitfire’s spiky hair.

“Oi, with me on the court,” Nishinoya retorted, jerking a thumb at his small chest. “Not _one_ of your spikes will hit the floor.”

Kuroo smirked at the challenge and Bokuto caught Yamaguchi rolling his eyes from a few yards off.

*******

“So I get the car,” Asahi confirmed with a sly smirk. “Fair and square.”

Bokuto huffed, bent over on his own knees and his jaw ticked at the loss. “Yes, you giant bear, you can use the car for your _romantic_ weekend.”

“Oh, don’t be so pouty, owl boy,” Oikawa sang out, playfully tossing a ball against his silver hair. “You’ll beat us next time! If you get some practice in~~”

Oh, Bokuto _would_ beat them next time. Especially the chirpy chestnut who managed to rile him up out of a victory.

As the boys gathered their things, chatting amongst themselves, his eyes landed on Keiji. The icy boy who was irrevocably _his_. A genuine smile plastered on his lips as the familiar metallic scent whirled into his nostrils. He pulled the quiet boy into a sweaty embrace, then raised an eyebrow at Hajime and Oikawa-- sneaking into the small equipment room.

“They’re going to fuck,” Keiji remarked with a scrunched up nose. “Gross.”

Bokuto felt his cock twitch against the fabric of his sweatpants and he leaned in close to Keiji’s ear. “They have the right idea.”

When the icy Omega shivered against his body, Bokuto’s heart fluttered to life and he tugged Keiji out the glass doors of the gym. Ahead of them, Tanaka was chatting furiously with Kuroo, and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were beyond-- walking side by side in their usual, comfortable silence.

“Let’s go,” he remarked, pulling Keiji’s small hand into his own. “The sooner we get back, the sooner we can have our _own_ bit of fun.”

Keiji snorted, then squeezed his hand. “I suppose. I could go for some _fun._ ”

As close to a _yes_ in Keiji language as Bokuto was going to get.

He grinned and looked up at the evening sky as they walked side by side behind their housemates. It was moments like these, surrounded by friends, his Omega’s hand in his own, and a pleasant evening breeze, that filled Bokuto’s soul with the most perfect peace. He was never going to give it up for anything. Not ever.


	43. Weightless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update because I have the second round of exams coming up :(((((((( Brief hiatus, sorry guys.
> 
> ***TRIGGER WARNING*** (We are entering a grey area!)
> 
> I've left this unexpected Kabuto arc open to interpretation. Is he an okay guy? Even I don't really know.   
> BUT, we'll see him briefly again, in the end of this work ;)
> 
> Love and hugs!! Thanks for reading and commenting, it means the WORLD.
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Forty Three: Weightless**

**Hajime~**

“Tell me why you’re irritated,” Oikawa commanded as he rolled over on the cold floor to pull on his grey sweatpants-- pale skin still flushed by their hot and heavy fucking in the equipment room.

Hajime groaned at the intensity behind the words. He just wanted to bask in the post-sex scent of his Omega and to _not_ think about Kabuto. The snake had twisted inside his mind and he needed a break. He had barely enjoyed his fantasy come to life-- too overwhelmed with thoughts of the drug lord. 

He placed a large hand on his forehead, feeling defeated, then glanced to his dressing Omega. “If I tell you, you have to _promise_ to not be mad.”

Oikawa raised an eyebrow before pulling a turquoise shirt over his head. “That bad, eh?”

“Yes,” he affirmed, flashing Oikawa dark eyes. He took in a shaky breath and forced himself to put a bit of faith in his Omega-- he had just wanted to secure an extra bit of protection, nothing more. Hopefully Oikawa could see that. 

“Okay,” the chestnut boy replied carefully, his playful disposition dropping away to match Hajime’s seriousness. “Okay. I won’t get mad. Just tell me.”

Hajime rolled up to sit against a plaster wall of the storage room and sighed. “I met with Kabuto yesterday.”

“You met with-”

“Wrong word choice,” he quickly interjected, sensing Oikawa’s rising anger through his hot scent. “I went with Yuji and Bokuto to give them a friendly warning...to not come back. And to stay away from you and the nest.”

Oikawa was silent for a moment, his stormy eyes fixed on Hajime. “Did it go as planned?”

“No,” Hajime admitted through clenched teeth, hating the sarcastic look the chestnut Omega was happy to give him. “No it did not.”

“Shocker.”

“You’re mad.”

Oikawa rolled his neck back to look at the ceiling, then shook his head and grinned. “I’m not _mad_ , Hajime,” he whispered as he ran a quivering hand through his chestnut hair. “It’s just...they’re dangerous...okay? You shouldn’t go near them again. In fact, _please_ do not go near them again.”

Hajime flashed the Omega with a skeptical look. “Yeah, drug dealers tend to be a little fucked in the head sometimes, but they aren’t _that_ scary. I’m sure we could handle ourselves-”

“No,” Oikawa said, deadpan. “No. You don’t understand.”

Hajime sat up, suddenly honed in on Oikawa’s stressed scent. “What is it,” he barked with dark eyes, growing extremely antsy in a matter of seconds. His instincts coiled around his stomach and he subconsciously released a possessive fragrance to cover his Omega.   

“They’re...Yakuza…Hajime," Oikawa admitted in the quietest of whispers and closed his eyes. “I mean, they’re a young branch, but they’re still dangerous. Just... _promise_ me that you’ll stay away from them. I promised you that I would, so give me the same courtesy.”

Hajime’s thoughts went into a dark flurry at the honest plea-- yanking forth reservations with his family that he had all but forgotten. His father was Yakuza, and a prominent member, at that. The old man had expected him to follow the same footsteps, but the older he grew, the more he had refused. Being involved with the Yakuza was for a certain kind of person-- one with a very steel stomach. Hajime had learned, very early on, that he had all the necessary traits. It was a realization that frightened him to the core so, like any logical person, he had been all too eager to run away from it.

He was keenly aware that his father was just biding time while his _only_ son went to University-- went through a _rebellious stage._ The moment he felt that Hajime was over it, he would ask, or command, his son to come back and join the family business. Only, it wasn’t just a stage. Hajime was _never_ going back. He knew that, soon, his father would grow impatient and his access to the well of family money would be cut off, but he didn’t care in the slightest. Earning his own way was a pleasant idea for him-- one that he closely attached to the idea of personal freedom.

Hajime's mind flickered to Oikawa’s dealings with Kabuto and his throat rumbled in panic. _How deep had his Omega fallen into the Yakuza snake trap? Was he still involved in it?_ Hajime knew, better than anyone that, once you were indoctrinated into the dark lifestyle, it was nearly impossible to get out unscathed. With so many questions flying through his brain, he started with the easiest one.

“Who else knows?” He asked through narrow lids, visibly quaking from a combination of fear for Oikawa, and anger with the situation.

“No one,” his Omega asserted with heavy eyes-- his oceanic scent suddenly worn. “Not even Suga...or Keiji. Just you. I doubt Yachi even knows.”

“You’re out?”

“I was never fully _in_.”

“Good,” Hajime said with a deep sigh of relief-- at least the chestnut beauty was smart enough to leave before things got too serious.

“You’re not telling me something,” Oikawa said quietly with a tone of hesitation. “I don’t...I don’t know _what_ it is...but it’s got you really upset...so I can only assume that it's...personal.”

“I’m upset that you got dragged into _that_ kind of l ifestyle,” Hajime affirmed, knowing full well that his response was far from the truth. _Was it really a good idea to tell Oikawa everything?_

“No. It’s not just that,” Oikawa replied, sniffing the air around Hajime as he fiddled with the ends of his shirt. "There's something else, too."

Hajime sighed again, heavier than before, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. Avoiding the topic was not going to do _anything_ to help keep his Omega safe. In fact, it would probably put Oikawa in more danger. If he knew about Hajime's family, then he would know to keep his guard up.  

“I’m ashamed of it,” Hajime said after a few minutes of tense silence. His voice was almost a whisper and he looked up to meet Oikawa’s interested gaze. "It's not exactly something that's in my control."

“Don’t be. You know my past. There’s not much that could top that,” Oikawa affirmed with a sweet smile and his tranquil scent did well to calm Hajime's nerves.

Hajime shook his head, mouth set in a hard line, and confessed. “I come from a long standing Yakuza family. I’m not...a _full_ member...and I don’t plan on ever being one. But, it’s going to follow me around for the rest of my life and…” He trailed off, heart in his throat, fearing his next words. “And if we mate...then it will follow you around, too.”

Oikawa laughed at that. A sweet, singsong sound that flooded the small room with more of his clean fragrance. “What are the chances~~”

“What?” Hajime asked, raising an eyebrow-- relieved that Oikawa paid no mind to his roundabout suggestion that they break up.  

“That the only two people in the house who have had dealings with the Yakuza, end up together~~” The chestnut boy quipped as he shook his head with a snort. “Unless...none of your other teammates are involved, are they?”

“Fuck no,” Hajime laughed-- the only other Alpha who _might_ have the stomach for it would be Tsukishima, and _maybe_ Tobio. “I’m the only one. Trust me.”

“Do any of them know? About your family?”

“Daichi does.”

“Ah. So he’s been  _father_ Alpha long before my nest arrived, then.”

“Yeah,” Hajime said with a playful grin-- sometimes he forgot just how much support Daichi provided both him and his teammates. “Always been the captain type, even before he was officially named as one.”

OIkawa shifted on his knees, leaning forward to gently caress Hajime’s jaw. After breathing in a few happy breaths of his scent, the chestnut Omega leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his lips that melted his insides.

“So,” he whispered as he licked his plump lips, meeting Hajime’s fluttering gaze. “You’re going to tell me _exactly_ what Kabuto told you.”

_It was not a suggestion._

**Oikawa~**

As Oikawa listened to Hajime’s detailed account of the meeting with Kabuto, he felt his heart sink down into old memories. He had always had his suspicions that Kabuto was a puppet master-- twisting Chaki to his will from an unseen place. However, he had never truly believed it.

_Until now._

Hajime’s unexpected news meant that every terrible thing Kabuto had said to him during the party had been intensely calculated. The snake knew exactly which buttons to press-- the ones that would make him dejected and self-conscious. Ones that would rob him of the confidence he needed to physically attack before the yellow house Alphas returned. _Seriously? Had Kabuto really been that concerned with his safety?_ He wanted to scoff at the very notion, but shuddered when he found himself unable.

Everything lined up too perfectly and he hated it. The tattooed snake even went so far as to engage in the brawl to save face with his Yakuza pack. It was so like Kabuto-- to plan a hundred steps ahead and wrap everything up in a neat little bow.

_Well, not everything._

Oikawa’s scarred face was a testament to that. Kabuto had lost control. He had seen it happen to the tattooed man before, many times. The dark snap in his eyes, the scent of his unyielding rage-- it was exactly the same when the Alpha smashed him into the steel faucet. The loss of control over internal instincts didn’t excuse the act of violence, the nasty scar on his face, but it did leave Oikawa with a bitter understanding that he didn’t want.

Anger was easier than understanding. He wanted his anger back.

*******

Oikawa stirred from his nightmare filled sleep, twisted in the blankets next to Hajime’s near-comatose figure. He had already made peace with what his Alpha had done...but not with the apparent things that Kabuto had divulged.  

Kabuto and his spider web of lies…he couldn’t get them out of his head. _Why_ had the tattooed man explained so many crucial secrets to Hajime? It was out of character and Oikawa could not, for the life of him, come up with a good reason-- aside from a desire to make peace with the yellow house Alphas. _But that couldn't be the only reason, right?_

He glanced at Hajime as he yanked a navy sweater over his narrow shoulders, then snatched his phone from the bedside table. His Alpha was going to be _very_ mad at him for what he was about to do, but he had to find out the truth for himself.  

He snuck out into the dark hallway, adjusted his grey backpack over tired shoulders, then clicked on his phone. He hated that he still knew Kabuto’s number off by heart-- obsessive need for drugs had burned the digits in his mind for all eternity. Only, that wasn’t the entire truth. Despite everything, Kabuto had provided him with some measure of safety...a shrewd feeling of protection in his darkest hour.

As he typed on the bright screen, his hands shook with anticipation, but he wasn’t frightened in the slightest.

_It’s Oikawa. I know you’re awake. We need to talk._

He hit send, then padded down the stairwell and pushed out the front door to sit on the veranda steps. He inhaled the humid, early autumn air and ran a quaking hand through his disheveled hair. _What the fuck was he doing? Had he gone mad?_

Before he had the chance to contemplate the answer, his phone vibrated in his hands.

_Where?_

He sighed and told himself an obvious lie, that he wasn’t nervous, then replied.

_Waterfront park. Red bench. Come alone._

Immediately, Kabuto’s reply popped up on the glass screen.

_You really trust me to come alone?_

Oikawa couldn’t help but chuckle at the sentence. He did not trust Kabuto with _anything,_  but his desire for answers overruled all thoughts of safety. He pondered back to their altercation at the party, to the moment when Keiji’s rape had been revealed-- Kabuto’s bright eyes had flickered with shock. He was certain of it. The question was, just what exactly was the snake surprised by? His vicious monologue, or the rape itself?

He shook his head, steadied his conviction, then typed one last reply.

_I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you. Prove me wrong._

*******

As Oikawa neared the park, he immediately caught Kabuto’s familiar scent on the light wind. He scanned over the cobblestone path before him, running parallel to the dark ocean beyond, and noticed a tattooed, surly figure-- casually seated on the red bench. Just as he had promised.

Oikawa sniffed the air a few more times for good measure, to ensure that the snake had truly come alone, then sighed at the ludicrous situation. Once he was fully satisfied, he strode over to the monstrous man and balled his fists to alleviate some of his rampant stress.

“Oikawa,” Kabuto remarked as he approached, not even bothering to turn his head from the ocean waves beyond.

“Kabuto,” Oikawa seethed back, then walked in a large semi-circle to stand before the tattooed man-- wanting to stay out of lunging distance.

“I came alone.”

“I can see that.”

“A show of faith, on my part.”

 _Yeah fucking right,_ Oikawa thought as he debated a snarky remark before deciding against it. He wasn’t there to argue, he was there for answers.  

“Why the fuck did you say all that shit,” he abruptly asked, his voice louder than he intended.

“To your _lover?_ ” Kabuto chirped back, then whistled when Oikawa’s throat rumbled with an irritated growl that was supremely human. “Would you fucking relax? Christ, you’re making me nervous with your scent.”

Oikawa hadn’t even bothered to reign in his feelings. He was too perplexed and angry with the tattooed man that he didn’t have any extra energy to spend on his own fragrance. _Kabuto was just going to have to deal._

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He spat forth as he pointed to the long, pale scar on his face. “You see this shit? Don’t fucking tell me to relax.”

Regret flickered inside the haunting depths of Kabuto’s bright eyes-- gone so quickly that Oikawa wondered if he had imagined it. “Fair,” was all he said before glancing casually up at the clear night sky.

“Was it all true,” Oikawa pushed, shoving down a sudden desire to slap the man across his smug face. “Everything you said to Hajime. Was it true.”

Kabuto dropped his gaze back to Oikawa and smirked. “Yes. All true.”

“Liar. You've never been one for making peace."

“I’ve been called that a lot this week.”

“Good,” Oikawa barked as he crossed his arms over his chest. “People are finally starting to see the _real_ you.”

He wished that he meant the harsh words, but he didn’t. Something about Kabuto’s tone and perfect eye contact rang true. The man was telling the truth, and it freaked him the fuck out.

“You believe me,” Kabuto remarked with a playful smile that did well to accentuate his handsome features-- if he wasn’t such a bastard, Oikawa was certain that the man would have long lines of beautiful suitors.

“I don’t,” Oikawa flipped back with a huff of frustrated air. “You’ve always been a liar, through and through.”

“I know your scent pretty well by now, Oikawa. There’s not much you can hide from me. You know that.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Oikawa whispered, his tone liquid hostility at the insinuation. “You don’t get to say that kind of shit.”

“You’re right,” Kabuto conceded quietly, then glanced past him to once again look out at the dark ocean. The silence was cutting, lingering for more than a few minutes before he spoke again. “Hajime’s good.”

Oikawa nearly fell over the cobblestone barrier and onto the beach below. “Excuse me?” He exclaimed, painfully aware that his face was plastered with confusion. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean.”

Kabuto rose to his feet and stretched up, revealing dark tattoos on his lower abdomen. “He’s a good catch. That’s all.”

“Did you know about Jime and Keiji,” Oikawa asked, wanting to immediately change the subject to something he _did_ want to know. “I saw your eyes, when Keiji said it. You were surprised.”

“You’re not frightened of me anymore,” Kabuto threw back his own statement of a question, disregarding the accusation with professional ease.

Oikawa rolled his eyes, but his breath caught in his throat-- suddenly realizing that he no longer felt fear in the presence of the snake. “No. No, I’m not,” he replied, pleased with his own, steady words. “Now stop avoiding. Did you know about Jime and Keiji?”

The tattooed man caught his gaze with serious, unyielding eyes. “No. I didn’t. You know my stance on that.”

Oikawa snorted. He hated that the words were plainly honest. Kabuto was a demon, but he never saw the man rape an Omega-- except... _him_. But even then, he wasn’t sure if he really _could_ claim rape. He was taken advantage of, for sure, but his gut twisted up when he thought of it as anything else. Sometimes...he had even enjoyed it.

“No,” Kabuto growled out, startling Oikawa with sudden intensity. “There were times when I _did_ rape you. Stop trying to excuse it in your twisted head.”

Oikawa’s heart nearly stopped and he felt hot tears pool in his eyes at the sudden and unexpected admission. He hated that Kabuto could take one sniff of his scent and put together his thought process-- the man was a master manipulator, through and through. It he was born an Omega, he would probably be able to pluck the thoughts from the mind of a thoughtless animal.

“It was wrong. Don’t forget it. Don’t excuse it,” the man continued, eyes still fixed on the calm ocean waves behind him. “I don’t take advantage of clients any more. It’s not a good way to run an empire.”

Oikawa sniffed, scoffing at Kabuto’s idea that his Yakuza drug ring was the equivalent of an empire. “No. It’s not.”

“I’m glad you got out.”

“Stop it.”

“I am sorry.”

“I don’t forgive you.”

“Good.”

 _Stop,_ Oikawa internally pleaded as he wiped a stray tear from his soft cheek. Ever since his fight with Hajime, his emotional floodgates had opened and tears seemed to come quite readily.

He just wanted the monster to stop talking-- to stop being so fucking genuine. There was a reason he grew so attached to a snake like Kabuto. A reason he did not leave the man’s side for years. A reason that was beyond the drugs.

Deep down, he believed that young Yakuza was always _trying_ to be good. Even as Kabuto struggled against his own inner demons, the man  _wanted_ to be a good person. Oikawa had related to that idea-- related to the harsh reality of being happy and good while trapped inside the dark, underworld of crime. It was a near impossible task, but the stupid snake was still fighting to do it. Even now.

“I know that it doesn’t make up for much,” Kabuto filled the pensive silence with ominous words as he meandered back towards his residence. “But I owe you a favor.”

“For what?” Oikawa said in loud reply, glancing at Kabuto’s broad back as he walked away. Yakuza favors were not given out lightly. He was plainly aware of that fact.  

“For pushing me to come out of the shadows.”

“What the fuck does that mean, you cryptic animal.”

“I’m gonna push out Chaki. Take the lead. He’s too much of a hassle and I’ve got to stop being a puppet master if I want to get anything done.”

Oikawa dropped his head back and looked up at the stars, smiling faintly. All things between them aside, he knew that Kabuto would succeed and, somewhere deep down, Oikawa actually _wanted_ him to-- Kabuto had always been indiscriminate when it came to Alphas and Omegas. The only variation in his bright eyes was the divide between those he could take advantage of, and those he could not. Oikawa used to be in the former category, not because he was an Omega, but because he was weak-minded.

_Not anymore._

“One favor. You know where to find me,” Kabuto said his final words before disappearing into the dark park.

Oikawa rolled his neck, feeling suddenly lighter than he had in a long time, and started his own walk home-- _a favor from a snake might come in handy one day._


	44. Intelligent Rage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
> 
> I have bronchitis so yay writing. 
> 
> This needs to be edited again, as always.  
> AND WHILE IT MIghT bE SaD, this chapter means we're slowly getting to a potential resolution for Suga/Daichi!
> 
> xoxoxo :)

**Chapter Forty Four: Intelligent Rage**

**Daichi~**

After keeping a watchful eye on Suga the entire day, from an uncomfortable distance, Daichi had followed the boy to the library in the evening. The campus was mostly quiet for a Thursday, something which he was eternally grateful for. With less people around, there was a smaller chance of Suga falling into some unknown danger.

He felt immensely guilty about trailing his former Omega, but his desire to keep the silver boy safe all but stifled his logical mind. There was no ulterior motive for his sneaking around the brick building that housed the silver boy within. He wasn’t doing it in a creepy, stalking sort of way. He wasn’t doing it as a means to get the Omega back in his good graces. It was purely done to satiate a strained desire that commanded he keep Suga within his sights. Nothing more.  

It had been two days. Two days since he had last scented the Omega. Two days since the breakup. Daichi was certain that he was going absolutely mad. His first day as a single Alpha had been a tragic mess of raw emotion. His stomach knotted in waves of nausea and his heart--  _oh, his heart!_  It maintained a deep, vengeful ache that pooled into his nearby lungs, leaving him with ragged breaths of air for the entire day. His emotions were turbulent and deeply mournful-- not that he could really sort through them in the first place. They were braided together so intricately that he couldn’t even tell the difference between joy and upset anymore. Not even the ever-present fear for Suga's safety held the power to make him leave his quiet room. Instead, he remained in bed, smelling the small tones of the Omega's lingering scent in his sheets. The fragrance helped to keep him sane and he was careful to not inhale too much-- fearing the inevitable...that the sweet smell would run out.

_And then it did._

Without the lingering scent of his Omega on his sheets, Daichi’s emotions somehow evolved into something much worse. He woke up and found his bereaved melancholy gone-- replaced with a troubled desperation for the familiar sweet fragrance. His body and mind were absolutely starved of it-- mouth dry and lips cracked. He felt lost in the driest of deserts, praying for water that would never come.

He left the room Wednesday morning with the sole intention of inhaling the silver Omega-- to get the fix he so badly needed. When Suga’s scent whirled into his nostrils, lingering remnants from inside the paint room, Daichi’s mind was pushed to the brink of sanity. The fragrance was different. Very different. It no longer held the playful, affectionate overtures that he had grown so accustomed to in the last month. While it was still sweet, it was more dull and lifeless than he remembered-- not that he had much to go on anymore.

_All he had left were fading memories._

Thursday morning, Daichi had opened his dark eyes feeling more aware than he had in the previous forty eight hours. He no longer felt like he was going through motions from behind an emotional fog. Instead, his instincts were finally awake and rearing inside his mind-- commanding him to find and protect the Omega that was no longer his.

He had cursed and thrown a large fist into his mattress at their not-so-subtle request. He had sworn that he would not trail Suga if the boy was no longer expressly  _his_ to protect, but his instincts seemed to have a way of bypassing his logical mind. For the first half of the day, he unwittingly trailed Suga by way of scent, but he quickly found himself unable to continue-- opting to use sight to follow the boy instead. The lifeless, grey fragrance made him want to vomit. Not from the smell, per say, but from the feeling it invoked inside of his waking soul.

For the first time in three days, he could finally put a finger on a specific emotion in the chaos of his own mind. He realized that something deep inside of him was missing. It wasn’t an entire half of his being, but rather a small, distinct part that nothing else could ever fill--  as if he had lost a single fragment of the thousand piece puzzle that was his soul.

At that recent memory, a now familiar pang erupted inside of Daichi's chest, pulsing through his tired limbs. He shook his head and grimaced with a renewed need to vomit. Lurching his head up, he glanced through a clear window of the library and fixed his sights on Suga, praying that it would stabilize the dull ache in his chest. The silver boy blew a stray hair from his pale face, then flipped over a page of a large, leather bound book. After a few minutes, he sighed and planted his forehead on the oaken desk in front of him in defeat.

Daichi snickered at the classic case of exasperation, but his smile quickly dissipated. Once upon a time, he was a happy companion for Suga during his studies. Once upon a time, he was seated next to the Omega, smelling the boy as he eagerly flipped through textbooks. Daichi subconsciously sniffed the air, reliving a past memory of them together, but the mental image soon flickered-- leaving him to smell nothing but clean, night air. He swayed on his feet and grimaced again.

_What did Suga smell like, again? What did he smell like before? Baked...goods?_

As the questions poured out of his brain, his heart twisted into a shriveled ball of terror. He searched the archives of his mind for memories of Suga’s fragrance, growing more panicked with each passing minute he couldn’t find one. Frantic and absorbed in his quest, he barely noticed the silver boy saunter down the library steps.

He sucked in a break, shelved his quest for later, and reigned in his scent. Then, he ducked behind a potted cherry blossom tree-- out of sight on the cobblestone near the side of the library. Even from the small distance, only ten meters away, he couldn’t smell Suga’s fragrance. Not that it mattered anymore. The literal scent wasn’t enticing, it was guilt inducing, and it’s only goal seemed to be to fill him with a terrible heartache at his loss.  

_Whatever bond they once shared, was certainly broken now._

After Daichi was confident that Suga would not detect him, he quietly shuffled out from behind dark leaves and began a slow, methodical walk behind the Omega. He admired the way Suga’s lithe body swayed with each step and even smiled under his breath when the boy paused to search his leather satchel-- ensuring that he hadn’t left anything behind.

_Intelligent people...always so scatterbrained._

When at long last Suga rounded the corner to the cul de sac that housed their familiar yellow house, Daichi’s heart sank. Being forced into such a claustrophobic area alongside his exomega was excruciating. The small confines always did nothing but flood him with unchecked rage-- a vengeful frustration with his unwanted circumstances. Circumstances that he had no control over.

_Did Suga even care?_  If he did, Daichi couldn’t tell. The boy’s scent had become too polluted to his nostrils-- he could hardly ascertain any emotion from it at all.

He felt another familiar pang of grief when he watched the Omega sniff the air inside the house through the living room window-- he implicitly knew that the boy was looking for a sign of his presence. He wasn’t sure if Suga was pleased or upset at his absence, but he prayed for the latter. It was easier than thinking that he had already moved on.

Daichi remained outside, feeling the humid early autumn air blow across his skin-- unable to bring himself to take even one step towards the yellow building. Ten minutes went with him watching Suga flip through a textbook at the dining table-- probably Latin literature. After thirty minutes, the Omega disappeared and the light of the nest room was flicked on. An hour passed and room was once again shrouded in darkness.  _Suga had gone to sleep._

He sighed and sluggishly made his way towards the house, but quickly stalled in place as a familiar cacophony of voices filled the quiet night around him-- drowning out evening cicadas. Before him, his housemates made their way across the yard in a flurry of loud, playful banter. Some were paired up with their Omegas-- a tragic sight that all but ripped Daichi’s soul from his body. He was  _Jealous_ of his teammates, but he was more embarrassed than anything else.  _Embarrassed that he had failed._ He had wisely avoided everyone over the past three days. He didn’t want their sympathetic eyes. He didn’t want their comforting words. He didn’t want their advice. He knew that there was none to give. Suga had shoved him out of his life, and there was nothing that anyone could say to remedy that fact.

As the boys slowly clamored into the house, Dachi's eyes darted to Bokuto-- holding a familiar bag with... _volleyballs._

_Why was the owl dragging around a sac of them?_ He glanced down at his watch, nearly 9:00pm.  _Had they...did they...rent out a gym? Did they...play volleyball?_

At that recognition, his rage nearly tripled. He didn’t care that they left him out of their plans. In fact, he was certain that they had _smartly_ left him out for a very specific reason-- he would  _never_ have allowed them to play with their injuries.

_Really,_ he thought to himself with gnashed teeth,  _did they really need someone to tell them that it was unwise to do physical activity with broken bones?!_

As the remaining members pushed into the oak door, he started a brisk walk towards them. Hiking up the veranda stairs, steps booming out on the wood boards, his throat began to grumble with hot rage. He knew that it was _somewhat_ unwise to chew out his housemates in his current state-- residual anger from his recent breakup was going to make him much more hostile than necessary. For a brief moment, with a large hand on the copper handle, he contemplated dropping the entire thing.

_No_. If he didn’t say anything now, then the idiots would never learn to take better care of themselves. He jerked the handle and pushed the door open, accidentally hitting Hajime with the edge of the wood.

“Hey-” The snarky Alpha started in protest, but he clamped his mouth shut when he smelled Daichi’s enraged scent. “Daichi, man. Are you oka-”

“Are you...are you guys  _kidding_  me?” Daichi interrupted, his face flabbergasted. “Who the hell thought it was a good idea to…” He paused as Oikawa's figure flashed in the corner of his vision-- likely trying to make a clean getaway before the lecture. “OIKAWA. Don't take another  _goddamm_ step.”

The chestnut Omega froze and slowly turned on his heels with an audible  _eep._ “Look, Daichi. I really didn't do much. Just a bit of practice hits-”

“You are coming off of a _concussion._ And broken ribs!” Daichi barked out, cutting Oikawa’s explanation short with a raised finger.

For a moment, the chestnut boy remained shamefully silent before opening his mouth again in protest. “Omegas heal-”

“I don’t give a _fuck_ if Omegas heal faster than Alphas! _Christ,_ Oikawa. What is wrong with you?!"He growled deep in his throat, then turned to face the other housemates-- stalled in the entryway with sheepish looks plastered on their faces. “And I swear to  _god,_ Tsukishima. If you played with your fucking broken fingers I am going to lose my fucking mind!”

Tsukishima let out a quiet laugh and gave Daichi a fake smile that was one part innocent, two parts nervous. “I _didn't_ play. Just coached from the sidelines,” he said, jiggling splintered fingers out in front of his lean body. “Scouts honour, captain.”

“Oh _really?”_ Daichi sarcastically remarked as he crossed his arms over his chest, his dark eyes darting between the blonde Alpha and the freckled boy at his side. “Coaching  _your_ omega then? The one who has a  _broken arm?_  I thought you had more of a brain than that, Tsukishima."

Tsukishima tensed, but Daichi couldn’t tell exactly which part of his declaration made the boy react. He had called the blonde Alpha stupid, alleged that he put Yamaguchi in harm's way, and openly voiced the freckled boy as _his_ Omega. Not that Daichi really cared to know the answer-- the boy deserved every word of it.

When Tsukishima sucked in a harsh breath, Yamaguchi pleaded softly with beseeching eyes. “My serving arm is fine! I just had someone toss the ball up for me…I didn’t use my broken arm at all...I swear...”

“Yeah, sheesh, captain,” Bokuto inserted himself into the conversation, shuffling uncomfortably from foot to foot under Daichi’s narrowed gaze. “Don't you think you're laying it on a little thick here? I mean...we were just having a bit of fun!”

_A bit of fun? A bit of fun?!_

“Have you lost your damn mind!?” Daichi snarled and the astonished owl took a wobbly step back. “Your nose is  _broken!_  It had to be fucking  _set!_  What do you think would happen if it got hit by a stray volleyball?! Weeks more recovery and a lot of extra fucking pain, that’s what! Oh, and I’m sorry, but you see those  _splints_ on your hand? I bet you didn’t just  _coach_ with those broken fingers.”

Bokuto flushed and averted his yellow gaze to the hardwood, granting Daichi with the answer he already knew. “But my nose  _didn't_ get hit…it’s fine...it's not a big deal.”

“That's  _not_ the point!” Daichi snapped, then caught a glimpse of Tobio's damaged arm in the corner of his eye.

_Oh hell no._

He slowly raked his gaze over the setter, huffing and puffing with instinctual anger. Tobio stiffened and the colour drained from his face-- scared of the storm of a lecture he was about to receive.

“Did. You. Play. With. That. Arm.” Daichi snarled in a slow, low tone that sent visible shivers through the group.

Tobio’s dark eyes widened and he quickly nodded his truthful answer-- knowing a lie would only make things worse for him.

Daichi willfully let a tense silence fill room and he slowly raked his gaze down the line of housemates before him.  _God dammit,_ he thought with a shake of his head, _they were so stupid! So fucking stupid! Did any of them know how to think things through?!_

Asahi stepped forward, his lips twisting as he searched his brain for the right words. “We didn’t mean any harm by it, Daichi. I don’t think it was-”

“Be quiet,” Daichi barked, happy for a continued outlet for his rage. “Go check on your stitches. If they opened, I’m calling Ukai and  _he_ can give you a lecture,” he paused to look at the other boys in front of him. “He can give you  _all_ a lecture.”

Asahi’s bronze disposition paled considerably at the threat-- Ukai was much more terrifying to face than his captain. When he remained in stiff and in place, Daichi growled again to assert some unnecessary dominance.

“Go. Upstairs. Now.”

Immediately, the bunned giant shuffled past him and up the stairwell, but the remaining housemates stood frozen in the entryway-- unsure of whether the command was for all of them. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, the front door swung open behind and Yuji clamored inside, dragging Yachi along with a free hand.

“Heeeeey!” He exclaimed with excess energy before furrowing his brows at the dejected scent of the room, and the sullen disposition of his friends. “Woah…who...uh...who died?”

Daichi met his gaze and the blonde Alpha swallowed a lump of a fear, his adam’s apple bobbing with anxiety.

“Were you two playing volleyball today, too?” Daichi challenged with a raised eyebrow-- like an unsatisfied dad waiting for a long expected lie.

“Um, no,” Yuji remarked, instantly relaxing. Daichi rolled his eyes, the kid was telling the truth. There was no faking the happiness on his face-- the joy in knowing that he wasn’t the  _bad kid_ this time around.

“You know how fucked I would be if a stray ball hit me in the jaw?!” Yuji continued in rushed explanation. “It's only just stopped aching. No thank you. Nooooooo thank you!”

_What backwards universe had he stumbled into...where Yuji was somehow the smart Alpha in their pack?_

“You  _wanted_ to go...” Yachi said softly and Yuji hurried to shush her with shaking hands. “You said that you-”

“Shh, Yachi!” You want me to get in trouble with  _dad_ over there?” He quickly seethed in hushed tones before snapping his gaze back to Daichi. “The  _point_ is, I  _didn’t_ play volleyball. Not like  _these_ idiots! I used my brain!”

_Scratch that,_ Daichi mused with a sly smirk as Yuji gestured his housemates in desperation.  _Yachi was the brains behind the scrappy kid._ He should have suspected that.

“Hey cap,” Tanaka quipped with a shrug of his shoulders. Daichi cringed at the scent-- a combination of guilt and pride. “ _Some_ of us were okay to play, right? You can't be mad at every-”

Daichi's dark eyes snapped up and the bald Alpha instantly cut the words short. “Oh, I  _can_ be mad at everyone. And I am,” he asserted as he flicked his gaze over the boys in question-- Shoyo, Keiji, Hajime and, much to his surprise, Kuroo. “ _You_ guys are just as bad as the rest of them! You shouldn't have let the others play! _Christ_ …what is wrong with all of you?! Do you have a death wish? Do you even care about healing in time for fall volleyball? Am I speaking another language?!”

“Aw, cap. C'mon,” Kuroo whined with a playful grin-- trying to lighten up Dachi's  _dad mode._ “Stop worrying. We made a mistake and we all know it now...right guys? No one was hurt...so we can just live and let live.”

A murmur of agreement passed through the small crowd and Daichi rolled his eyes, feeling suddenly tired. “Fine. Don’t do it again,” he commanded, then shoved through the group and out the front-- effectively ending the tense conversation with his exit.

As he slammed the oak door behind him, he took a deep breath to steady his nerves. The clean air whirled around him, banishing the anxious scents of his pack from his flared nostrils. He was mad them for their absolute _idiocy,_ but he was keenly aware that his anger was more twisted than usual-- his recent breakup with Suga had seen to that. As his rage slowly calmed from the evening breeze, the familiar feeling of emptiness seeped back into his bones. He sighed and ran a large hand through his hair, trying to banish his sudden desire to punch something. Expressions of anger seemed to be the only thing able to dispel his inner turmoil over Suga. It was not a good sign. 

_Just how long was he going to keep feeling this unchecked emptiness? How long was he going to have to replace it with anger? He had never been a hostile person, and fuck, he didn’t want to become one._


	45. Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Twas supposed to be part of the last chapter, sorry!
> 
> Again, lots of dialogue to set things upppppppppp :(
> 
> Thanks 4 reading <33

**Chapter Forty Five: Perspective**

**Kuroo~**

Daichi had certainly caused a lot of upset with his little _lecture._ The house smelled like a disgusting mix of pride, and its counterpart, guilt. Even Kuroo had to admit that he felt pretty guilty himself for going along with the evening of volleyball-- Daichi did consider him to be the second in command, after all. He certainly wasn’t acting like it.

While he wanted nothing more than to hike up the stairs to his room, yank Kenma from whatever video game his nose was buried in, and fuck him into oblivion, there were more important things. Kuroo shook his head and smirked, _more important things than fucking, wow._

He pulled Shoyo to the side of the stairs and nearly laughed at the territorial look he received from Tobio. _Christ,_ he mused as he ruffled the ginger’s messy hair, _when the hell was the setter going to bite the bullet with the energetic Omega? Him and Tsukishima were such babies._ Kuroo had seen the way the blonde Alpha had tensed up when their captain called Yamaguchi _his_ Omega.

“Shoyo, when you go upstairs, can you tell Kenma that I’m going to be a while. I’ve got some shit to take care of,” he divulged and received a vigorous nod in return. “Not that he’ll really care...probably too lost in his video game to even…”

_Oh. The ginger kid was already gone. Alright then._

He straightened back to full height, gave Tobio a cheeky smirk as the setter quickly stalked towards the stairs to follow the ginger Omega, and moved towards the door. Daichi’s lecture, while a pretty normal occurrence, had been much more hostile than normal. _Much more._ That, coupled with the fact that his captain had been a complete ghost over the last few days, had him more than a little concerned.

He had heard whispers from Hajime and Oikawa that Suga had ended things between them. Like everyone else, he had been absolutely shocked at the news. In his eyes, they were a complete and utter match for, though, not in the perfect sort of way that most couples brag about. Daichi brought things to the table that Suga was lacking, and vise versa-- like salt and pepper. So different, yet equally good and near inseparable from a flawless meal.

 _Maybe,_ he mused as he pushed through the front door, _it was just a temporary separation?_ When the evening air hit his nostrils, tainted with Daichi’s rampant scent, he sucked in a quick breath-- _it wasn’t as temporary as he was hoping for._

He couldn’t even begin to translate Daichi’s fragrance and he battled to plug his nose from the awful smell. It was beyond confused, so much so that he was pretty sure his captain didn’t even know what he was feeling himself. There was terror, emptiness, loneliness, and a smidgen of something that surprised Kuroo-- _resentment._ Resentment for Suga’s actions. Although, Daichi was doing his best to squash it away into oblivion.

_No Alpha could fake this kind of scent._

Kuroo knelt and plopped down on the veranda steps with a heavy sigh, then jerked his gaze to Daichi. “Captain,” he said with a respectful nod.

Daichi didn’t meet his gaze, brown eyes fixed on something off in the distant dark. “Kuroo,” he replied with balled fists.

Suddenly, a scent of unchecked fury snaked into the air-- its intent fixated on Kuroo. For a brief moment, he wanted pull back and gain a few paces of safe distance between them. Daichi was challenging him into a brawl. No, not just a brawl. The captain was challenging him to a bloody fight.  

“Yo,” he remarked and subconsciously exposed the side of his neck-- anything to lessen his threat level. “Daichi, man. Words. Not. Violence.”

Daichi’s brows contorted, a visible sign of his struggles against his hyper-emotional instincts. “Sorry,” he rumbled out through clenched teeth, then moved to stand on the grass. “I’m...having a hard time keeping things together.”

Kuroo felt a pang of grief as the anger quickly dissipated back into the turmoil of emotions. Confused didn't even begin to cover it. It was closer to...disorganized chaos-- as if the captain's emotions were too intertwined to separate out into understandable entities.  

“It’s okay. Not your fault,” he affirmed with a brisk nod to show his forgiveness. “No harm done.”

Daichi remained quiet, dark eyes locked on the ground in front of him. Kuroo hesitated, but eventually took another sniff of the air to try and ascertain some semblance of his captain’s emotional state-- the silence was giving him less than the confused fragrance was.

Daichi’s scent was quick to snake inside his nostrils once more, almost as if it was eager to share its vengeful bewilderment with another Alpha. Kuroo pieced together their message inside his mind’s eye--  _It_ _had to be our fault. We lost him. We lost him. We lost him._

His mouth dropped slightly at the silent confession. “Daichi...man. It’s not...it’s not your fault. Really, it’s not.”

Daichi’s head snapped up and Kuroo stiffened, ready for an outright attack. “Yes. It. Is.”

“No, it’s not.”

“SHUT UP. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT.”

Kuroo flinched at the loud snarl of words, but soon found his own Alpha spirit amidst the converging anger of his captain. If Daichi wanted to snap at him, wanted to challenge him, then the Alpha was in for a world of pain-- and not the physical kind.

“I KNOW THAT YOU ARE BROKEN BECAUSE OF THIS,” he roared back, rising to his feet to tower over the smaller man with his natural height. “I KNOW THAT YOU ARE ANGRY ABOUT THINGS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.”

“SO. WHAT.” Daichi boomed and moved to take a swing at Kuroo's face, but stopped himself short-- fist hanging in the tense air. “I DON’T NEED THIS.”

Kuroo pulled back his shoulders and unleashed his dominance in full force. “YES. YOU. DO.”

His captain’s lips pulled back in a snarl and he began a rapid, pacing motion across the yard. His large hands clawed at his own brunette hair as he took in sharp breaths of humid air, devolving into a frantic state of what Kuroo could only deem as Alpha insanity.

“You. Need. To. Talk. This. Out.” Kuroo barked across the lawn and pushed his domineering scent further to influence his friend into submission. Daichi was not going to talk about things if he conceded his rank to the furious man. “Talk. I’ll listen.”

Daichi might have the most respect among their housemates, but Kuroo knew that he could outrank his dominance if it was necessary-- and right now, it most definitely was.

“NO.” Daichi asserted with an agonizing, gut-wrenching roar, filled with such a deep seated sorrow that Kuroo’s heart lurched inside his chest.  

Sorrow _and_ confusion. The confusion clearly rang out, _why did my Omega leave me all alone?_ Kuroo shuddered at the scent's translation. It was obvious that Daichi felt wholly betrayed, but he was fighting against emotion with everything he had-- he didn’t want to acknowledge a fault in his chosen Omega.

How the fuck was Kuroo going to convince him that his chosen partner, the perfect person in his eyes, had fucked up? He sighed at the answer-- he couldn't. Daichi had to figure it out and come to terms with it on his own. The only thing he could do was give a helping hand-- push the captain in the right direction.

“Stop pacing,” he commanded with a snap of his teeth and Daichi's hostile disposition slightly faltered. “Come. Here.”

For a moment, the captain stood stiff and clenched his fists at his sides. Then, much to Kuroo’s relief, he conceded and walked back towards the porch. _Thank god,_ Kuroo thought with a subtle sigh of relief. He hated dominating Daichi, the man was his captain-- _it felt wrong._

“He left you,” he said with tense shoulders, in more question that statement. “After the party?”

“Yes.”

“His choice?”

“Yes.”

Kuroo hesitated, not wanting to ask the next question. “Permanent...?”

Daichi’s throat rumbled and his confused scent poured out once more-- quickly replacing his rage. “Yes.”

Kuroo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus…” He whispered before trailing off to look at his captain. “Fuck, man. Do you know why?”

“I understand his perspective. I don’t agree with it.”

There it was again-- the all-consuming scent of raw fury. It was a cloud of twisting air around Daichi’s head that pushed out with eagerness, replacing the tragically confused scent in a mere instant. Anger and confusion. _The two scents were popping back and forth as quickly as a snap of fingers._

Kuroo leaned his head to the side, finally understanding the strange dynamic plaguing his captain. “Okay. I can’t fix this, alright? I can’t. But I can help give you some perspective,” he stated with a low growl, once again pushing out his dominant fragrance to combat Daichi’s sudden onset of rage. “You need to stop replacing your...this...upset...with rage. It’s unhealthy and-”

“It’s the only thing that works…” Daichi interjected, his body visibly crumbling in on itself at the quiet confession.

 _Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck._ Kuroo hated seeing someone so tortured, especially if that someone was his captain. The man was always the pillar of strength for their pack-- no wonder he had be avoiding them the past few days.

“I know it is, okay? I _know_ ,” Kuroo affirmed, crossing the short distance between them to place a hand on Daichi’s stiff shoulder. “Look. You need to work through this... _confusion_. I don’t care if you have to tediously pull every single emotion out of your brain, examine them up close and personal, then put them back where they belong. If that's what it takes, then that’s what you’re going to do.”

Daichi’s shoulders slumped even further, and for a brief moment, Kuroo was certain that the tanned man was going to cry.

“I can’t…”

“You. Can.” Kuroo snarled-- a supportive Alpha rumble to convince his friend of the things that he was so intent on refusing. “But, you’re right. Not here. That would be asking the impossible.”

Daichi, with great effort, pulled his head back to meet Kuroo’s expectant gaze. Without another word, the captain knew exactly what was being eluded-- he needed to leave the house if he was going to sort through his crippled mind. He had to be alone. _Away from_ _Suga._ It was the only way he could gain some much needed perspective.

“Not permanent,” Kuroo added, squeezing Daichi’s shoulder after smelling his anxiety. “Just until you have it together, or until we can find Suga a safe place to-”

 _"No,”_ Daichi snarled in interruption and his anger flooded back with a vengeance. “No. Suga stays. I will get it together.”

Kuroo didn't feel like that was fair, but he kept his mouth shut. He _liked_ Suga, but the Omega was the one who had ended things and here was Daichi, bending over backwards to accommodate him.

Kuroo growled out in frustration, then forced his instincts into submission and pondered his own, terrible nightmare.  _If Kenma...if Kenma broke things off...would he react the same way?_ Daichi and Suga weren’t mated, but they might as well have been. He shivered at the thought of losing his mate and slowly blinked the idea away-- he would have been exactly like Daichi. He would have replaced his turbulent emotions with anger. He would have left the house so that Kenma could stay in a protected environment. _He would have-_

“While I appreciate the empathy,” Daichi said quietly, startling Kuroo with a suddenly level, more human voice. “There’s no need to imagine Kenma leaving you.”

Kuroo laughed at that, snorting into the back of his hand. “Yeah. Fuck, man. I do _not_ envy you right now,” he admitted with a small, supportive smile. “But, take it one day at a time. You’ve got to take care of yourself. You can’t go on like this. You’ll go insane.”

“I know,” Daichi replied with an impossibly heavy sigh. “I know I do.”

“Stay with Ukai?” Kuroo suggested, thumbing over his jaw in thought. “He’s close by, right?”

“Yeah…”

It was the best solution that Kuroo could come up with. Their coach had lived a longer life than they had. Maybe, in all his gruffness, he had some elderly wisdom for Daichi. Plus, if he moved back with his parents...across the country...that would be it. They would never see him again.

There was no way in hell that Kuroo was going to let that happen.

**Ukai~**

**“** Is it...is it over,” Ukai panted out as he rolled off of Miyo’s sweaty figure.

Two days of fucking was enough to exhaust even the most vigorous Alpha-- _or maybe, it was just his old age._ He cringed at the thought and bit his lip, feeling over an old cut that his Omega had happily given him between kisses.

Miyo took in a breath to steady her tired lungs, then rolled her head back into the various blankets to glance at the clock on the wall.

“I think…” She breathed, flashing a sweet smile that melted Ukai’s insides. “I think….so…”

Ukai quickly pulled the woman that was now undeniably _his_ into his strong arms and inhaled into her sweaty hair. “I’m fucking relieved...but also kinda...bummed.”

Miyo laughed at his remark and her rainy scent flooded the room in its natural state, mixed in with his own fragrance and completely and utterly absent of Sonny. He had vomited, more than once, during the first day of her heat. He had to admit that remating an Omega was _not_ as great as it was cracked up to be.

_But the result...he very much liked that._

Miyo squirmed in his embrace, reaching into the various comforters beneath them on the hard floor of the living room. “Where the fuck is my phoooooooooone!” She whined, rubbing her plumb behind against his thigh as she searched beneath his body. “Oh god, what if it broke underneath us?!”

Ukai snickered, happy to feel her small hands groping the skin of his back. “I’m sure that its-”

“Aha!” Miyo shouted in interruption, shooting up to a seated position. “Little devil! I found you.”

Her milky breasts bounced with the movement and Ukai felt his cock twitch in anticipation-- _really?_

“Ah, fuck,” the raven Omega whispered and her scent quickly devolved into upset.

Ukai quickly pulled her into his arms and scented her against his neck, pushing out a protective scent to calm her sudden anxiety. “What,” he barked, extremely unhappy that his mate was tense. “What’s wrong.”

Miyo rubbed her crown along his scent glands and quickly reigned in her scent to ease his tension. “Suga broke up with Daichi…”

 _What?_ That was not at all what Ukai had expected-- he had been certain that they were going to get married...or at least _mate._

“What...how?” He stuttered out in disbelief. “Wait...what? Seriously? They were-”

“I know,” Miyo interjected with a heavy sigh. “ _Fucking_ Sugawara. I swear to christ that boy…”

Ukai reached behind him to search the pockets of his jeans, lying on the glass coffee table. There were multiple missed phone calls and texts, but his eyes latched on to the most pertinent of them.

_Yo, coach. Daichi and Suga are done. He really needs a place to stay, to sort shit out and stuff. Do you mind? We don’t have a lot of options._

_Also, hope you've enjoyed the two days of fucking. Ya filthy animal ;)_

Ukai couldn’t even find the energy to smirk at Kuroo’s sly chirp. If the rooster was asking him to put up Daichi, then things were really, really bad.

Miyo reached up to graze her fingertips against his mouth and he smiled into the gesture. “We leave for two days…” He whispered, shoving away the rest of the world for a few more seconds to enjoy his new mate. “Look what happens…”

“I guess...we intervene?” Miyo suggested, then leaned in close to lick across his lips. Ukai moaned into the gesture, but she pulled back and gave him a sly smirk. “You take Daichi, I take Suga?”

“I suppose…” He replied softly, running a large hand down the exposed skin of Miyo’s back. “We might cause more harm than good, though.”

“Maybe…”

“Worth the shot, I guess. But, for the record, I’m against inserting ourselves into our students’ love lives.”

Miyo flashed him a wink. “Sometimes, kids need direction. They get things so twisted up in their little brains!”

Ukai nodded, he couldn't argue that solid point. Then, his stomach rumbled out and his face turned crimson.

“What was _that?”_ Miyo chirped, prodding him on the navel. “Was that, hunger, I just heard?”

“No…”

“You know what cures that? Snacks. Like the ones you were _supposed_ to get.”


	46. The Lake House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi, we are getting into the last few bits of this story! 
> 
> Smut is coming soon I promiiiiiiiiiiise, I know its been a minute and a half since we've had some :)
> 
> Also goddamn spaces showing up where I don't want them..... >:(

**Chapter Forty Six: The Lake House**

**Suga~**

Suga felt dead inside. The world was listless and grey. Food was bland and music sounded like a jumble of dull and high pitched tones. He knew that his skin was perpetually cool to the touch, but he didn’t feel cold, or even warm for that matter. He felt absolutely nothing at all.

Daichi had not been his mate-- he couldn’t fathom _why_ his body was reacting so poorly to their breakup. There was no logical reason for his overzealous Omega instincts and their happy endeavor of descending him into a slow state of madness. With each passing hour, his cravings for an Alpha touch distorted and fixed themselves on Daichi alone. He found himself up late at night, longing for the familiar broad arms that fit around him so perfectly-- longing for the possessive scent that made him forget all of his other cares. Protective, loving, and strong. He had to fight tooth and nail against the unseen enemy within his mind and convince it that he didn’t want the man back at all.

He tried to repeat an internal mantra-- that he had broken things off for a genuine and sane reason. The whole thing was bigger than him because it was for the greater good of _all_ Omegas. However, a small part of him, one that housed deep inside his waking soul, seemed intent on outing him as a fool.

For the first twenty four hours, he had controlled his Omega nature pretty well. He still felt a perpetual sense of yearning in his beating heart, but it had been manageable.

_And then suddenly, it wasn’t._

Soon, he found himself spending more and more energy on battling against his Omega spirit-- eternally angry with him for destroying what it considered as a _perfect match_. By Thursday, he had lost what little remained of his internal strength and he fell asleep truly frightened of his own mind-- the one thing that had always on his side. The one weapon he always had in his arsenal, and it was being ripped away from him, bit by bit.

When he dragged his tired body out of bed Friday morning, a feat of its own given his terrible head-space, he shuffled downstairs to the blue kitchen and overheard Tanaka and Kuroo-- discussing Daichi in hushed tones at the dining table. He reigned in his scent, but a bitter sorrow washed over him alongside a sudden realization that set into his haunted bones. There was no point in spending extra energy to control his fragrance. There wasn’t much left of it anymore.

_The breakup was stealing that away from him, too._

“When do you think he’ll move back? Coach’s place can’t be too bad, right? I mean...” Tanaka mumbled between bites of his breakfast. “Shit, Kuroo. What a fucking nightmare.”

Suga heard the rooster unleash a heavy sigh and the man's undirected frustration snaked into his waiting nostrils. “I know. It’s shit right now. Fuck, you should’ve seen him yesterday. It was really bad Tanaka...I’ve never seen him so fucked up.”

“I _did_ see him...when he reemed us all out for the volleyball thing. It was _way_ more harsh than his normal lectures. His scent was fucking angry, man. Like he was trying to challenge us to a goddamn fight!”

“Exactly. He needs some space to sort out his emotions. They’re all twisted up inside his head from whatever they talked about when they broke things off. If he doesn’t get away from this goddamn house and Suga, he’s going to go insane...I can guarantee it.”

_Away from him._

Suga felt hot tears pool in his hazel eyes and he quickly brushed them away with the back of his long sleeved shirt. He reached for the silver fridge and grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk, not caring who it belonged to, then quietly shuffled out the front door.

 _Everything was his fault._ Daichi had moved out-- moved out of _his_ home. Suga should have been the one to do that. _Why hadn’t anyone bothered to ask him to leave instead?_ He was the guest in the residence, not Daichi. The yellow house was his home.

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What have I done?_

Suga’s mind swirled around, then latched onto a metal image of Daichi’s grinning face. His Omega instincts coiled around his heart, squeezing all logical thoughts from his brain as he dragged himself down the sidewalk in a grey daze. As they scrambled around, clawing at his brain, he subconsciously yanked out his phone with shaky hands and dialed a familiar number. Barely one ring passed before he was greeted with a caring voice on the other end of the line.

“Suga? Honey, are you okay?”

He sniffed and wiped another stray tear. “M-Miyo…”

“Suga, baby, _where_ are you? I’m coming to pick you up. I heard what happened.”

“I-I f-fucked u-up,” he stuttered into the speaker, at long last losing the battle against his ever-present Omega nature.

He mind was completely torn in two. One part still tried to maintain that everything was for the best, but the other, more chaotic side was adamant that he had destroyed absolutely everything-- including his one chance at true happiness. Right now, the latter part was winning by a landslide.

“Where are you, sweetie? Tell me where I can come and get you.”

Suga blinked through his blurry vision, startled to find that he had meandered all the way to the edge of the University campus. “O-outside the General S-Store.”

“Okay. Stay there. I’m coming!” Miyo’s electronic voice cooed back.  

His chest caved in a heavy sob and his hands shook the phone at his ear. “Can you s-stay on the line w-with me…”

“Of course, baby. I’m not going to hang up. I’ll be there soon. I promise.”

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa was waiting on the wooden steps of the front porch in the early afternoon, watching various students meander home in a flurry of overjoyed scents-- happy that it was the Friday of a long weekend. He had missed his half day of morning classes for a doctor appointment and had been given a clean bill of health for his upcoming heat, but the news was more for Hajime than for him. At this point, he would have to be completely comatose to skip mating with his snarky Alpha. He could fall off the roof and break every single limb on the way down, and it _still_ wouldn’t be enough to stop him. He was very, _very_ eager to make Hajime _his_.

He smirked at the humorous thought of flailing off the roof, then glanced down at his digital watch, shaking his slender wrist to adjust the twisted strap-- _Hajime was late._ He grit his teeth and tapped a foot on the wooden boards of the veranda to physically unleash his pent up stress. He _hated_ surprises, his Alpha was well aware of it, but the man still insisted on putting him through the ringer with one.

_Pack a weekend bag, I’ll come and grab you after lunch!_

_Okay...but where are we going?_

_You’ll see!_

_Hajime~~_

_Just be patient! I promise you’ll like it._

Maybe he _would_ like it, but that sliver of knowledge didn’t do anything to reduce his rampant anxiety. He took great pains to know absolutely  _everything_ at all times-- where he was going, what he was going to do once he got there, when he was going to sleep, what he was going to eat. He absolutely detested the unpredictable and unplanned, and surprises landed decisively into that terrifying category.

Five long minutes passed and almost every part of his slender body had started to vibrate with unseen dread. He gaze flickered between his tapping feet and the bright cul de sac in front of him, searching for something to take his mind off of the unknown. He swatted at a stray, copper leaf that fluttered down from their oak tree and let out a puff of hot air. When a dark car purred around the corner and slid to a cruising stop at the curb in front of the yellow house, he narrowed his chocolate eyes and brought a hand to his forehead to shield them from the afternoon sun.

It was certainly an expensive car, even if it wasn’t the most recent make and model. The matte black paint job was flawless, a testament to its very careful driver, hidden behind tinted windows. The far door popped open and Hajime stepped out onto the hot pavement and flashed a cheeky smirk that stirred his fluttering heart to life. His previous anxiety washed away-- replaced with satisfaction from the close proximity of his Alpha, and unchecked curiosity from the expensive vehicle.

“Is this yours?” He called in question as he stepped into the yard, lugging his clothing-filled knapsack over a narrow shoulder. He was already fully aware that Hajime came from wealth, the son of a mafia lord certainly would have the leisure, but he didn’t realize _just how much_ money the family really boasted. The car was proof in itself-- probably worth more than a small house.

Hajime tilted his head and leaned over the warm roof of the car. “Yeah, it is. It’s one of the two things in this world that are actually _mine,”_ he paused, flashing another impish grin at his own possessive thoughts. “Well, soon to be _three_ things...”

Oikawa rolled his eyes at the coy insinuation, but couldn’t stop his satisfied fragrance from pushing out in powerful waves. “So, _this_ expensive car is yours,” he drawled as he opened the passenger door and tossed his bag inside. Then, he leaned over the roof, matching Hajime’s brazen stance. “And _this_ priceless Omega is _about_ to be yours...” He said, sensually licking his lips at his groaning Alpha. “What’s the third thing, then?”

Hajime popped down his dark sunglasses and rolled back on his heels. “You’ll see in a couple of hours.”

 _You’ll see._ Oikawa’s absolutely _favorite_ two words in the entire world. He cinched his lips, tucked himself into the leather passenger seat of the vehicle, and slammed the door shut. The interior was as expensive as the outside and he was grateful for a blast of cool, conditioned air-- and for the deep-seated scent of his Alpha that lurked around the confined cabin.

Hajime followed suit, then turned a silver key in the ignition and the sporty engine hummed to life with a low purr. “You _really_ hate surprises, hey?”

“Yes,” Oikawa replied, tight lipped.

“Okay. After this one today,” Hajime asserted as he led the vehicle towards the end of the familiar cul de sac. “I _promise_ that there won’t be anymore. I’m sorry. This one is just really important. It’s just...it’s easier to show you.”

Oikawa crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at the chipper Alpha next to him. The man was overwhelmingly handsome-- chiseled jaw, with a slightly jaded look that was almost always present on his tanned face. Each time Oikawa looked at him, he somehow grew even more attractive.

“I’m going to hold you to that, Hajime,” he challenged, raising a manicured eyebrow. “After this, no more.”

Hajime hummed his acknowledgement and pushed down on the pedal, veering through the student packed district with an intense speed that thrummed Oikawa’s happy heart-- he _loved_ adrenaline inducing activities.

“I would expect nothing less from such a strong willed Omega that knows exactly what he wants.”

*******

After leaving the city, they traveled down a well-paved back road for nearly half and hour before arriving at a large, copper electronic gate-- the inanimate keeper of Hajime’s _mysterious_ secret. Oikawa rolled down his passenger window in a hurry as they passed through it’s metal grating, eager to better smell the natural environment of the outside world.

“What is this place?” He asked as he sniffed at the fresh, country air, admiring the tall forest that was surrounding them on all sides with its autumn colours.

Hajime kept his eyes on the narrow road ahead of them. “My property.”

Oikawa jerked his head to the Alpha, flashing him with astonished, chocolate eyes. “I’m sorry, but did I hear that right? _Your_ property?!”

“Yeah,” Hajime reiterated in sullen tones-- as if he was reliving an unpleasant memory. “It was one of my grandfather’s places. When he got too old to travel, my father started using it for…” He trailed off, dark eyes flickering over to Oikawa before locking back on the front windshield. “Well, for private matters. The kind that needs to be done away from...listening ears and prying eyes.”

Oikawa jerked his gaze back to his open window and sucked in a breath. “Oh.”

“Yeah. But when my grandfather died a couple years back, he willed it to me. So when my father finally decides to disown me for being an ‘impertinent brat,’ he can’t fucking touch this place. It’s legally mine. In my name. Just like my car.”

“So, how _did_ you get this, then?” Oikawa asked, tapping a finger on his leather seat in indication.

 “My mother, well, my _step_ mother, I guess. She bought it for me on my sixteenth birthday. Put it in my name, too.”

Oikawa hummed in understanding. “You think that she wanted to give you something to keep for yourself? Something your dad couldn’t take away?”

“That’s what I like to tell myself, yeah,” Hajime said a nod. “Who knows if that’s the truth, though.”

They remained in comfortable silence for a few minutes until they turned the corner of a particularly large pack of amber trees. Oikawa’s jaw dropped at the quaint sight, hidden behind their leafy depths. A small stone house stood resolute with two brick chimneys jutting out of its damaged shingles. The front of the property was flush with wildflowers and other overgrown bits nature that added to its charming vibe. Beyond, a weathered dock careened out into an expansive crystal lake that sloshed about against the old wood. Its grey, sandy shores slowly shifted into tufts of long grass that held overbearing oak trees, shuttering in the autumn wind.

“I know it’s not much…” Hajime drawled as he jerked up the parking break between them. “But it’s mine.”

“Not much?!” Oikawa exclaimed as he scrambled out of the black vehicle. “Are you…” He trailed off to glance at the cozy lake house, then poked his head back inside the cabin. “Are you insane, Hajime? This place is beautiful!”

**Hajime~**

After Hajime pulled the bags from the car, he stopped to admire Oikawa’s stunning figure for a moment. The lithe boy stood a few meters away, an ocean fragrance wafting off of his body in joyous waves that tousled playfully in the clean air around him. Hajime breathed in the scent as he closed the short distance between them and a happy smile played across his narrow lips. He dropped the light luggage to the moss-infested brick path beneath their feet and pulled his Omega into a tender embrace. He tightened his arms around Oikawa’s slender shoulders and inhaled into the crown of chestnut hair, trying to ease his sudden rise of tension. There was a reason his willed lake house had fallen into such a terrible state of disrepair-- being there always brought back bad memories that he wished to forget.  

“I’m glad you like it…” He whispered, melting into Oikawa’s intoxicating, clean scent. “I haven’t been here in years…”

Oikawa purred against his chest. “I’m not a _total_ diva, Hajime. It might surprise you, but I prefer the country. It’s clean and natural and lovely in every way that a city isn’t.”

“Could have fooled me~~” Hajime chirped, smiling against his soft hair.

Oikawa pulled away to flash him a stern look and he chuckled, grabbing the boy’s delicate hand in his own. “Come on. I’ll show you the inside. And once you see it, I bet you ten bucks that you’ll take back everything you’ve said. The place needed work _before_ I abandoned it. Who knows what horrors we’re going to find inside it now.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Oikawa assured and moved up to plant a sweet kiss on his lips. “It can’t be  _that_ bad. And if it is, we’ll clean it up! That should satiate the clean freak in you~~”

Hajime gave Oikawa the full tour-- through four well-furnished bedrooms, absolutely coated in thick layers of dust-- two bathrooms with outdated fixtures and grimy surfaces-- and a once well-used kitchen with a strange corridor that retained remnants of old maid’s quarter. Oikawa remained impressed throughout, his eager scent filling the lake house with the sense of familiarity that Hajime knew it sorely needed. He had planned to set them up in the living area, but the expansive room, like everything else in the house, needed a lot of cleaning to make it hospitable.

“What’s this?” Oikawa asked, tapping a hesitant toe against a metal hatch in the floor near the center of the room. “Some sort of dungeon I suppose~~”

Hajime snorted. “You’re not far off.”

At his casual statement, the chestnut boy jumped back, holding a hand to his heart in disbelief. “Are you fucking serious?!”

“Well, no. But also yes,” Hajime replied with a sheepish grin, not wanting to vocalize the true depths of Yakuza depravity. “It used to be a bomb shelter during World War Two, my grandfather had it built into the foundation of the house. But when my father took over, he sort of re-fashioned it for…” He trailed off, unsure of what word to use and Oikawa was quick to chime in.

“What, like a Yakuza interrogation room or something?”

He scrunched up his nose at a fleeting, internal image seeping blood and hoarse screams, then pulled Oikawa into another comforting embrace. He didn’t like talking about things that opened the darker memory banks of his mind. In his younger days, he had joined his father inside the metal shelter, on more than one occasion. At the time, he didn’t know any better-- didn’t understand the true nature of the family business he was set to inherit. He was merely a child that wanted to please his domineering father.

“Yeah,” he said at last, inhaling Oikawa’s comforting scent in sharp breaths. “Screams are pretty muffled inside of a metal box that’s buried beneath the earth...”

Oikawa shuddered against his body and he held tighter, clinging onto his Omega for dear sanity. “Jesus,” Oikawa whispered, rubbing his back in small circles to console his strained mood. “It’s not...still like that...is it?”

“God no,” he remarked with a huff of air and kissed the top of the boy's chestnut head. “It was the first thing I fucking changed. It’s a wine cellar now. Much more practical if you ask me.”

Oikawa’s firm hand ran up to his shoulder blades and he felt nails scratch his back through his cotton shirt. “Are you okay?” His Omega asked quietly. “With being here, I mean. Cause we can go somewhere el-”

“No,” he interjected, pulling away to look down at Oikawa’s angular face. He ran a gentle thumb along the pink scar that snaked up from his cheek and his throat rumbled. “I’ll be okay because you’re here with me. I kind of want to make some new memories in this place. Ones that I don’t have to lock away and pretend never happened.”

“Okay, well that I can _happily_ assist you with,” Oikawa said with a coy smirk, then pulled Hajime’s hand into his own and wandered towards the french doors near the edge of the living room. “Because it would be an absolute _shame_ to banish this amazing view because of some shitty memories.”

*******

They spent the rest of the remaining daylight hours clearing the main living area of cobwebs and rampant levels dust. Oikawa beat various blankets, cushions, and rugs outside on the back veranda, sending bits of grey dirt to skitter towards the lake on the autumn wind. Hajime pulled, none too gently, a heavy mattress from a nearby bedroom and did the same before plopping it down in front of the rather ancient-looking stone fireplace. They had agreed that clearing out _one_ main room was much easier than a more in-depth clean-- that endeavor could wait until their next visit...when there weren’t more _important_ things to do. Hajime didn’t give two shits about where he was going to take his Omega, so long as he got to make the chestnut beauty _his._

“I’ve never fucked an Omega in heat,” he divulged as the two of them munched on their late evening dinner-- bits of brown toast and tomato soup. “I mean, I _think_ I know what to expect. But like…I honestly have no idea what it's going to be like. I’m pretty fucking stoked, though.”

Oikawa swallowed a bite of his buttered toast and smirked. “Well, _obviously_ , I haven’t fucked an Alpha in heat, either. So we’re kind of on the same page here.”

 _Obviously_ . If Oikawa had, then they wouldn’t inside of Hajime’s memory-infused lake house having this pleasant conversation-- the chestnut boy would have already been mated. At that sullen thought, his instincts coiled around his gut and his throat rumbled out with a sudden burst of possession. If Oikawa had mated before they had even met, then he would’ve staked his claim over the unworthy Alpha in a heartbeat. Oikawa was _his._ There was no question in his mind. He would not let anyone get in his way. Alpha or otherwise.

“I’m _yours,_ Hajime,” Oikawa whispered, smelling his sudden upset. “I’m mating _you.”_

The chestnut boy was suddenly closer, grazing a nose along the scent glands in his neck. “Yes. You. Are.” He growled back, inhaling his Omega’s oceanic fragrance with renewed vigor. “ _Mine._ You are _mine.”_

“Welllllll,” Oikawa said, kissing along the edges of his tense jaw. “My heat is going to hit at any time now. So I hope you’re ready…because then I’ll _really_ be yours.”

 _Oh, he was ready._ He had been ready for weeks. From the very moment he first laid eyes on the beautiful chestnut boy, his Alpha instincts had been eager-- even if he had tried to deny that fact.

Oikawa gracefully pulled out of his possessive grip and he grumbled out from the lack of contact. “What are you doing?” He asked as the boy rifled through his grey knapsack near the crackling fireplace.

“I need to take my birth control,” Oikawa lazily replied, tossing two shirts to the side of their plush mattress. “We don’t want any little Hajime babies running around~~”

Hajime groaned, his instincts suddenly buzzing at the idea of having offspring. _Christ_ , he thought out with indignation, crushing them back to the abyss. _How fucking animalistic...he wanted to fill Oikawa to the brim with his seed at the mere mention of babies._

“Not yet,” he asserted in near snarl, unable to keep the feral words from spilling out of his mouth.

Oikawa’s chocolate eyes snapped up and he flashed an uncommonly sweet smile. It wasn’t his usual cheeky grin, or his knowing smirk that drove Hajime up the wall. It was a warm, inviting smile that sent shivers down his spine with its genuine nature.

“Already thinking about _siring_ my babies hey,” he challenged with a raised eyebrow-- slender hand still rifling through the dark backpack. Hajime averted his gaze in shame and the chestnut boy spoke again, this time taking a soft, matter-of-fact tone. “It’s okay. I’ve been thinking about having your babies, too.”

Hajime’s stomach did a somersault at the honest statement and his throat renewed its hot rumble-- instincts happy and content with the idea. _Having his babies. His Omega, swollen with his child. With their child._ The mental image was almost too much for him to bear, he wanted to jump his Omega, right then and there.

“But not yet,” Oikawa chided, grumbling as he shook his bag upside down to spill out its poorly packed contents into the blankets. “Ah! There’s the stupid thing~~”

Hajime watched as he carefully untangled small capsule from a pair of dark joggers and held it up in front of his face, grimacing. The cylinder was long and narrow, and flush with a golden liquid inside its glass case. Oikawa bunched up the ends of his turquoise shirt and lined up the end of the capsule with the pale skin, just above his hip bone.

“I’m told that this part stings,” he said through stiff lips and Hajime cocked his head to the side.

“You haven’t done it before?” He questioned, eyes fixed on his Omega’s shaking hands-- his fragrance was beginning to lace the air with a hidden nervousness.

OIkawa shook his head and gave him a faint smile, trying to feign some confidence. “No. No need to use it before now.”

 _Right._ Hajime pulled his knowledge on Omega pregnancies, most of which came from a very, _very_ short lesson that had been taught during his first year of high school. His teacher had reiterated, more than once, that Omega cycles were as straightforward as the gender was-- a subtle stab that had been lost on him until now. Omegas released their eggs once every thirty days or so, triggering a state of heat. At all other times, they were infertile.

Oikawa released a shaky sigh and Hajime wriggled his nose at the Omega’s upset-- he _hated_ it. “Do you want me to do it?” He asked as he shuffled over the various blankets atop their makeshift bed. “You’re stressed out and its stressing me out~~”

Oikawa closed his eyes and smirked at the playful chirp-- jaw working hard to steady his jitters. Hajime remained silent, waiting patiently as he fought an internal battle with his own pride. “Okay,” he relinquished after a few minutes, holding out the strange capsule. “Don’t fuck it up, though. We’ve only got one shot that this.”

Hajime gingerly took the vial and met the boy’s nervous gaze. “You know,” he started in a light-hearted tone, wriggling an eyebrow as he moved to sit beside the quivering Omega. “I have this mental list of _all_ the things that you’re scared of…”

“Oh?” Oikawa remarked, his body stiff with nerves. “How very _Alpha_ of you.”

“Definitely very _Alpha_ of me,” Hajime affirmed, lining up the sharp edge of the capsule with the Omega’s smooth skin. “There’s not a whole lot on it, by the way, so don’t worry. You’re pretty tough for such a fluffy looking Omega.”

Oikawa snorted at the unsubtle quip, then slightly flinched as Hajime lined up to stab the injector. “I know. I’ve got beauty, brains, and brawn. I’m a triple threat.”

Hajime smiled at the plain statement. The chestnut boy was, _irrevocably,_  a triple threat. Through and through. _How the fuck did he land such a fucking catch of an Omega?_

“Surprises, emotional confrontation,” he listed off, continuing his tactical distraction, and pressed the cold metal into Oikawa’s abdomen, stabbing the skin with disappearing, golden liquid. “And now I can add needles to that meager list.” Oikawa let out a silent yelp, but his lithe body relaxed when Hajime shook the empty capsule at him. “Done. Easy peasy.”

“Thank you. And I am _not_ afraid of emotional confrontations!” The Omega seethed back, snatching the cylinder from his large hand. “That’s you. Not me.”

“You’re right. I am, cause fuck that shit, but it’s still staying on my list.”

Oikawa frowned, tossing the silver capsule into the orange fire behind him-- flames licking at the glass. “I’m working on it, okay~~”

“I know you are. So am I,” Hajime said with a knowing nod and rolled his neck, happy that his Omega’s scent was returning to its normal tranquility.

Oikawa narrowed his lids, then sighed again. Another genuine smile flickered across his pale features and Hajime felt his body shudder with sparking energy. “Thanks for doing that. I wouldn’t have been able to stab myself with that shit. Heat supressors go in the thigh... _soooo_ much easier than jabbing yourself in the stomach. I mean, who in their right mind wants to do that?”

Hajime rubbed the edge of his jaw and rolled a shoulder. “No problem, baby.”

“Oh, gross,” Oikawa drawled, swatting playfully at his broad chest. “Don’t call me _that.”_

“Why not? I like it. It’s sexy.”

“It’s embarrassing~~”

Hajime growled under his breath and sat back on the mattress, eyeing down his Omega with darkening eyes. “No. _Embarrassing_ is what you’re going to be doing tonight,” he rumbled, Alpha dominance seeping off of him in droves of fresh intensity. “You’re going to show me _every single_ inch of yourself. You’re going to be _begging_ for me. You’re going to beg for my knot, over and over until you think you can’t take it. And then you’ll take it even more. _That’s_ embarrassing.”

Oikawa gulped, quivering with sudden arousal, but held their intense gaze. “You’re pretty confident in yourself,” he challenged quietly and Hajime loved that the slender boy always found a way to maintain his confidence and pride. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Oh, I _am_ confident myself. And you _will_ see,” Hajime snarled. A subtle whine escaped Oikawa’s plump lips, but he pulled back on his growing instincts and gestured down to a half-eaten plate of food. “Now finish eating. You can’t survive on a diet of cum.”

  
  



	47. Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okkkkkkkkk so, as fricken USUAL, there are going to be unwanted spaces that I'll have to go back and fix. Sorry! (They just keep popping up and it's driving me absolutely insane).
> 
> Also, I have a little more to update, hopefully I can get it out tonight. It was supposed to be a part of this chapter but I shuffled it to the next one!
> 
> Thanks so so so much for reading/commenting/kudos. They are AWESOME!

**Chapter Forty Seven: Heat**

**Hajime~**

Hajime had nearly finished cleaning the dishes in the cabin’s grimy kitchen sink when Oikawa’s heat blasted through the house. His large hand crunched down on the soapy, cream coloured plate and it cracked in his heavy grip, scattering chunks of jagged porcelain into the murky water. His pupils immediately dilated to full and he snapped his neck to look towards the living room, lids narrowing over black eyes. He wiped his bloody hands on his grey shirt and strode towards the source of the intoxicating fragrance, throat rumbling in a constant loop of sudden arousal.

As he neared the ornate archway between the two rooms, he stalled in place just beneath it-- stunned by the unchecked force behind Oikawa’s heated scent. The Omega was just over ten feet away, quivering and moaning in a keeled over position on the mattress in front of the fire. Hajime sucked in a large breath of warm air and his instincts bashed inside his skull, commanding for him to relinquish control at once.

Then, a wave of a fresh ocean fragrance penetrated his waking mind-- submerging his consciousness in an violent sea of pleasure. The sudden chaos inside his brain had him leaping forward and tearing at his clothes as he closed the distance between them. Oikawa’s eyes shot up to meet his own and the boy whined out from deep in his chest, making his desire known-- his desire to be filled completely by Hajime's thick cock.

The Omega didn’t even have the chance to wrestle free of his own clothing before Hajime pounced, pushing him down into the soft covers. Hajime grit his teeth as he tore through the back of Oikawa's turquoise shirt, exposing milky skin, dripping with sweat. Then, he ran his large hands up the curve of Oikawa’s spine and the boy arched into his touch, mewling into the mattress.

 _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._ He internally cringed in panic as another bout of Oikawa’s heat-filled fragrance washed over him-- flickering his disordered mind between control and instinct. He was beginning to drown, beginning to _happily_ drown in the hot scent. He felt like he was being submerged inside a sensory deprivation tank-- one that was specially made to tune his senses to nothing but Oikawa. The world around him narrowed and became silent. Everything in his peripheral vision washed away, leaving only his Omega and the flickering fireplace beyond them. When he grazed his fingertips over Oikawa’s jutting shoulder blades, he stayed his shaking hands and grit his teeth again.

 _Claim. Claim. Ours._ _CLAIM._ His instincts convulsed inside his skull and snaked through his panting chest. He closed his eyes, black with animalistic desire, and tried to wrestle back some measure of control. He _never_ let his feral nature take over in full-- not if he could help it. The very idea of letting his Alpha inhibitions guide his actions sent shivers down his spine and to his scrunched up toes.

 _What if they did something that he didn’t want to do?_ That was the danger that lurked behind an Alpha’s feral instincts and he had no desire to take part in it. Heat or otherwise.

Even before meeting Oikawa’s nest, he had never wanted to be _that_ type of Alpha-- the kind that would chalk their terrible actions up as a slip of their _poor_ Alpha instincts. He had lived his entire life with an important mantra-- _hold your nature at bay, always and forever._ He had seen, first hand, just how blurry the line became when an Alpha allowed their feral nature to take full control. He had seen his father snap the neck of his only uncle. He had seen Bokuto beat another Alpha into a coma. He had seen Chaki smash his Omega’s face against a steel faucet-- scarring the boy for life.

_Nothing good ever came from animalistic, Alpha instincts. Nothing at all._

“H-Hajime…” Oikawa moaned and arched forward, wriggling his hips in a silent plea.

Hajime pulled his hands away from the enticing Omega and clenched them at his sides. His felt his instincts wreath around inside his throat, pulling out a deep growl of pleasure against his will. They were so close, so _fucking_ close to taking over completely. His conscious mind began to panic through his furious arousal and he sucked in large breaths of frantic air-- but Oikawa’s heated scent came in with it. He stumbled back, clawing behind himself as he scooted backwards towards a plush ottoman near the sitting area.

 _Get distance. Get distance. Get distance._ He repeated in mantra to himself as he pushed against the roaring beast inside his brain. _Space. Space to think. Space from the intoxicating scent._ Just one moment of clarity, that was all he needed.

Oikawa whined again, this time much louder, and he looked over his shoulder to glance at Hajime. “Alphaaaaaaaaa,” he moaned and shook his hips to assert what he wanted. What he  _needed._ “Please. Please come. Here. I’m empty. I _need_ you.”

Hajime groaned at the boy’s erotic tone and brought a shaky hand to his forehead-- now slick with tense sweat. He couldn’t even explain his emotional turmoil and get some advice from the person he trusted most-- Oikawa was too far gone in his heat to understand anything other than fucking. Hajime blinked slowly, nearly bit through his tongue, and glanced down at the wooden floor. He caught his left hand in his vision, it was still bleeding from his earlier encounter with the poor plate in the sink.

_Okay, what the fuck was he going to do?_

Oikawa mewled, rocking his narrow hips back in an enticing motion that nearly drove Hajime into another state of violent madness. _Fuck_. There was no way that he was going to be able to hold out against his animalistic nature. Not with Oikawa’s scent, fluttering through the air with intense droves of euphoric desire. Not with the Omega luring him in with lust-filled actions.

He let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, mouth set in a hard line of acceptance. If he was going to relinquish control, he was going to do it of his _own_ accord-- he was going to allow them to take over, not lose out to them through force. Hesitantly, he relaxed his conscious mind into a calm tranquility and made peace with the situation. In mere moments, his feral nature took the small advantage and snapped out, consuming every ounce of his waking being. His black eyes shot open and he clamored towards the mattress once more-- this time eager to claim his Omega completely.

Oikawa whined as he approached, whimpering in pleased tones that his Alpha was finally giving him what he desired most. Hajime launched himself onto the mattress and yanked down the boy’s black joggers, not even bothering to take them completely off. Then, he tore at Oikawa’s soaked briefs, pooled them just below his knees with his joggers, and plunged inside the Omega’s inviting sex. A raw and guttural roar burst out of his throat as he pounded into Oikawa’s squirming figure from behind. When he felt his cock pulse against the warm walls of his Omega’s ass, he grabbed around Oikawa’s throat and arched the boy’s stomach towards the tangled sheets.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes,” Oikawa panted out, his tone growing louder and more frantic with each passing second. “Yes. Yes!”

Hajime roared his satisfaction and bit down on the Omega’s pale neck, lapping up the crimson blood with lustful fervor. “You. Were. Made. For. Me.” He snarled into Oikawa’s ear, then bit down again-- this time on the soft skin of the biy's shoulder blade.

Never, in his entire young life, had he ever felt so _alive_. Every square inch of his glistening skin what alit with ripples of electric energy-- and they happily zapped between his hard cock and his beating heart. Growling in a continuous loop of pride, he shoved Oikawa’s lithe body into the mattress and laid his full weight down against the boy’s sweaty back. As he continued to pump into the Omega’s slippery sex, he grazed his white teeth along his intoxicating scent glands-- leaving a trail of raised scratches from the harsh contact.

Hajime increased the strength of his grip around Oikawa’s throat, nearly choking him into submission, and inhaled until his lungs were about to pop.

_There it was._

_He_  was now a complete and utter victim to a deep sea of fresh salt. Oikawa’s oceanic scent was flawlessly powerful, with enough force to destroy everything in its wake-- and it was unconditionally his now, forever.

_Every inch of Oikawa’s milky skin, every pound of the Omega’s lithe body, every thought inside of the boy’s beautiful mind, was his._

For the first time in his life, Hajime felt completely and utterly at ease with the instinctual control over his body-- his consciousness was too distracted to even care anymore. It was floating in the deep pool of turquoise ocean that had coated every corner of his mind. He was both exhilarated and intensely calm, happily drowning in the watery depths with a wicked smile on his tanned face. Euphoria didn’t even come close to describing the rampant emotions he was experiencing. They were something beyond sheer perfection. Something beyond human understanding. They were animalistic and natural and raw-- a pure set of emotions that humans had long since abandoned in their sentience.

_Mates._

As he pounded ever harder into his Omega’s slick hole, the oceanic fragrance pushed back with twice the force. Suddenly, he understood that he wasn’t the one who held the power-- he was just a bystander at the mercy of the chaotic sea that was Oikawa. Every drop of the chestnut boy's intense fragrance was authentic and intoxicating. It roused Hajime’s instincts-- inspired them into giving Oikawa what he wanted. In the vastness of the oceanic scent, the fragrance acted as his serene guide-- commanding things of him that he was all too happy to give.

“More. Deeper. More,” Oikawa mewled in ecstasy and Hajime obliged, grinding his cock as deep as possible to satisfy his mate. “Yes. Yeeeeeeeeees. That. Yeeeeess.”

_Unimaginable depth._

_Crashing euphoria._

_His mate was flawless. Utterly flawless in every way._

As his thoughts devolved into a flurry of admirations for Oikawa, his cock began to grow in size, rearing to knot deep inside the Omega's quivering sex. He bit down once again, this time at the nape of Oikawa’s neck, and lapped up the rouge liquid as if his life depended on it. Then, with heavy lids, he jerked Oikawa’s head to the side and claimed the boy’s mouth with his own, coating the inside of their mouths with the metallic taste of warm blood. Oikawa moaned against his mouth, lips vibrating in a series of aroused whines as Hajime’s cock knotted into place-- securing them as a mated pair for all eternity.

As his member swelled, his Alpha scent _finally_ grew large enough to rival Oikawa’s ocean, and the two fragrances intertwined in a beautiful mess of sexual energy that pushed his feral nature into sheer madness. He unleashed a booming roar as his knot exploded his hot seed inside Oikawa’s tight ass and the air suddenly _whooshed_ down around them-- blanketing them in a heavy musk of their now permanently entangled scents.

The two boys were still for a few moments, panting heavily in a silent delirium as their orgasms subsided. Slowly, the heavy ocean drained out of Hajime’s mind and his consciousness stirred from its pleasant contentment.

Oikawa’s slim figure was still vibrating beneath his weight and soft _ahs_ of pleasure tumbled out of the boy’s lips-- body still in the throes of an orgasm.

“Okay?” Hajime growled in question-- and it was a _fucking effort_ for him to get the single word out of his rumbling throat.    

Oikawa filled the silence with a few more faint gasps before responding. “Y-yes. Okay.”

The Omega’s heated fragrance was still heavy in the air, but it was only lingering remnants-- there were no more fresh waves from his pale skin. Hajime was both relieved and dissatisfied with the realization. Relieved because he _needed_ a break so he could untangle his conscious mind from his overzealous instincts, and dissatisfied because he wanted _more._

_More pleasure, more connection, more of everything that his mate had to give._

Oikawa’s body finally relaxed beneath him and the boy plopped his face into a mess of covers-- mentally exhausted. “We have twenty minutes...I think.”

Hajime furrowed his brows and finally won the battle against his rumbling throat, silencing it. “What did you say?” He asked with winded words. “I can’t hear you when you’re-”

Oikawa rolled his head to the side and smirked his classic smirk-- the one that always left Hajime appreciating his beautiful features and coy mind. “I said that we have twenty minutes,” he repeated, still breathless.

“Twenty minutes...?” Hajime said with a groan and he tried, and failed, to hoist himself off of his pinned Omega-- he didn’t have the energy to move a muscle.

“Until another bout...I think...twenty minutes," Oikawa sighed out and an sly grin plastered across Hajime’s chiseled features. His manicured brows furrowed. “What the fuck...is that look...on your face…?” He panted out, then swatted at the air where Hajime’s head had just been.

Hajime dodged another slug and grinned wider. “Complete and utter excitement. Bring it on.”

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa had been fucked in every position, from every angle, for two days straight. His bouts of heat were slowly growing further apart but, much to his dismay, they showed no sign of stopping.

_Guess four days was still accurate, fuck me._

“Yo, finish that banana,” Hajime barked over his shoulder as he prodding at the glowing fire with a metal rod. “Potassium, you need it.”

Oikawa took a large bite and chewed angrily. “ _You_ need it.”

“I already had mine.”

“Yes, I know,” Oikawa huffed, admiring Hajime’s muscular body out of the corner of his eye. “I was being facetious.”

Hajime tossed another log on the warm blaze then turned around and plopped down on their messy mattress. While their little nest was _pretty_ disgusting, covered in sweat and cum, Oikawa was surprised to find that he actually liked the smell. It was comforting, in his heat, to be surrounded by his Alpha’s scent-- _by his mate’s scent._

“When are you _not_ being facetious?” His Alpha remarked, flicking a stray hair from his face.

He nearly shuddered at the loving touch and his heart skipped a beat. “You’re right. I wonder how you’ve lasted this long. My humorous personality can be such a nightmare.”

Hajime growled at the self-chastising words and Oikawa wasn’t really sure why he had said them in the first place. _Was he worried that Hajime was still going to leave him? Even now? Was he really that insecure still?_

“You are the absolute _furthest_ thing from a nightmare,” Hajime asserted, then tugged Oikawa’s slender body into a cradled embrace from behind. “You’re the Omega of my fucking dreams.”

 _Oh, god._ Oikawa snorted at the awkward, affectionate words, but couldn’t stop his stomach from doing a happy somersault in victory. “Gross, Hajime. That’s so fucking cringey.”

Hajime hummed, then kissed the stop of his head. “I know. It _is_ gross. I can’t believe I said it either.” Oikawa smirked and took the final, mushy bite of his banana before the Alpha spoke again. “I mean it, though. You know that I like your personality...even if you are a pain in the ass sometimes.”

Oikawa tossed the yellow banana peel into the flickering fire, then trailed light fingers over the tanned skin of his mate's thigh. “But my ass, now _that_ is completely unforgettable,” he whispered coyly and smiled to himself.

“Oh, completely,” Hajime growled in agreement and ran two large hands down the front of Oikawa’s exposed chest-- stopping briefly to flick at a pink nipple. “And when you’re in heat, fuuuuuuuuuuuck, Oikawa. It’s just...indescribable. How long do we get to do this shit for? I can’t remember if you told me already, sorry. Your bouts are getting further and further apart, right?”

Oikawa scrunched his nose. “Yeah, I did tell you, I think. It'll probably be around four days, but I’m still not sure. The last time I went through my full heat was also the first time I ever had it.”

“Really?”

“Mmm, yeah. Never met someone I loved enough to-”

_Did he just said loved? Oh fuck. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck._

“Did you just say _loved?”_ Hajime growled in question and lightly massaged the suddenly tense muscles between Oikawa’s neck and shoulders. “Did I hear that right?”

Oikawa stiffened even further. “No. Nope. You must have heard wrong.”

Hajime leaned in close to his ear, so close that he could feel the Alpha’s warm breath, tickling the skin on his neck. “I don’t think that I did, Oikawa.”

 _Oh for fucks sakes. How long had they known each other? Six weeks? Love should not be in the equation at all!_ Oikawa shivered and his breath caught in his throat-- six weeks, and he had already mated with the guy. Okay, maybe love _was_ in the equation.

“Okay, let’s say, for the sake of this argument, that I _did_ say love,” he remarked and stretched his long legs forward on the matress. “And I’m not saying that I _did,_ by the way.”

Hajime tapped at the back of his head and Oikawa rolled his hazel eyes-- he could already see the Alpha’s coy smirk in his mind’s eye. “Yeah, yeah, I know how your little hypotheticals work by now,” the Alpha muttered as he happily sniffed at Oikawa’s scent glands.

Oikawa rolled his eyes again. “So if I _did_ say love, then…” He trailed off, biting his lip-- almost permanently swollen from all of the fucking he had been doing lately. “What...what would you...think?”

“Oikawa,” Hajime replied with a throaty rumble that zapped through Oikawa’s navel and right down to his cock. “You _really_ need to ask me that? Come on...”

 _Yes! Of course he did!_ Oikawa hated to admit it, hated it more than anything, but he didn’t have the self-confidence to see himself as a catch. Hajime was astonishingly attractive-- physically gifted and intelligent, with a dominant scent that left Omegas and Alphas quaking in their boots. Oikawa was...a _snarky Omega._ That was it, that was what he had going for him.

But there was one silver lining in his story of self-doubt-- he no longer believed that he was a well-used Omega.  _Not anymore._ Not after everything Hajime had said and done for him, not to mention his new alpha roommates. And definitely not after his strange conversation with Kabuto.

_But...Hajime could still do way better...maybe he would come to see that...eventually._

“Fuck. Would you stop thinking like that!” Hajime snarled and whipped Oikawa around to face him. “You’re fucking beautiful, inside and out.”

Oikawa blushed and swatted at the Alpha’s extended hands. “Stop being so mushy, _please_. I’m going to vomit~~” Hajime rolled his eyes and feinted him to the left, then used his right hand to flick him in the forehead. “Ow, Hajime! What the heck!”

“I’ll stop when you stop forcing me to do it,” the Alpha mumbled, dark eyes locked on Oikawa’s flushed face.

Oikawa ran a hand up the long length of his new scar, then huffed out and dropped it back down to his lap. “Beautiful with this ugly thing on my face, eh?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think that-”

In an instant, Hajime burst forward and pinned Oikawa beneath his weight. “You’re an absolute catch. And you’re all _mine. No one_ else will ever have you. I won’t let them. Not ever,” he asserted in a soft and threatening snarl that left him shivering into the blankets. “Mine. My mate.”

Oikawa sucked in a breath of his mate’s domineering scent and closed his eyes. “There are a lot of Omegas out there, Hajime.”

_You never know._

“None. None like you,” Hajime whispered, seemingly hurt by the insinuation. 

The Alpha’s unblinking eyes were so intently fixed on Oikawa’s face that his stomach was lurching in discomfort. He tore his hazel eyes away, looking off to the side at the orange fire. “You don’t know that…”

“I DO KNOW THAT,” Hajime roared, baring teeth in his face. "I KNOW IT COMPLETELY."

Oikawa flinched, but made no other move and every inch of his body was hit with sparks of energy. They weren't sexual in nature, they were tender and loving. Hajime’s scent pooled over their forms-- promising him everything that his self-doubt had been keen on blocking away.

 _Hajime was his mate. Hajime loved him._  And he was angry with Oikawa for insinuating that he would want someone else-- it was an insult to his credibility as a partner and a mate.

“I’m...sorry,” Oikawa gulped and moved a shaky hand to caress Hajime’s tense jaw. “I...didn’t mean that the way it came out. I...I...I love you, Hajime.”

 _Fuck, saying that was hard_. While the words were honest, they still felt like poison on his tongue-- uncomfortable and awkward.

“If you hate saying it so much,” Hajime put forth and plucked Oikawa’s chin between two deft fingers. “Then you’d better start building up a bit of confidence. Cause I’d like to be one of those couples that doesn’t need to say it at all. They just know it, implicitly.”    

“Yeah, that would be preferential,” Oikawa murmured, melting into his mate’s possessive scent. “I’ll work on it…I promise.”

“Good,” Hajime barked, but remained in place-- still pinning Oikawa into the soft mattress.

“Um, Hajime? You want to get off or…”

“No,” the Alpha growled and ran a finger over his scarred cheek. “Another bout. Soon.”

 _What?!_ He blinked rapidly as he internally searched for any sign of heat. His mind was still clear as day and his sex was-- _well...it_ _was_ _wet. But not because of his heat!_ It was because his cheeky, bastard mate was talking about love and enveloping him in a strong, possessive fragrance.

“I don’t think--” He started to respond, but was cut short with a low snarl.

“It. Is.”

_No, it wasn-_

Suddenly, his world narrowed-- blinding him to everything but his mate. His mind was flooded with a cloudy mess of arousal and his abdomen tensed as he scrunched his toes. A gush of wet slick pooled beneath his ass, soaking into the poor mattress below.

_Alpha. Fill me. Please._

In that moment, nothing else mattered anymore.


	48. Lover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnd, this was supposed to be part of the last chapter....so here ya go!  
> (Again, dumb spaces where they aren't wanted).
> 
> Lots of smut! Also, I'm kinda proud of this chapter :)
> 
> Love love love always, 
> 
> Victoria
> 
> OH ALSO, here's a breakdown of the specific Omega scents. Someone was asking (I think):  
> Keiji: Ice and metal  
> Shoyo: Sunshine (whatever that smells like to you), an invigorating summer breeze, or a carbonated energy drink lol.  
> Sugawara: Fresh baked desserts, mostly ones with chocolate.  
> Oikawa: The ocean and clean laundry.  
> Yachi: Roses  
> Yamaguchi: Pina coladaaaaaaaaa (coconuts)  
> Nishinoya: Limes (citrusy stuff)  
> Kenma: Eucalyptus  
> Miyo: A rainy forest...or the rain forest lmfao.

**Chapter Forty Eight: Lover**

**Hajime~**

_Day four._

Hajime was kind of sad to be nearing the last bit of Oikawa’s marathon of a heat. His mate’s bouts were now hours apart, and their intensity was had waned considerably. During their most recent affair, nearly five hours ago, Hajime had been pleasantly surprised to find the he could even wrestle back some control from his wily instincts.

He was now plainly aware that fucking an Omega in heat was a violent affair. It was animalistic and raw-- primal in every sense of the word. Both parties cared little for foreplay or tender actions, the sole thought in their mind was breeding and claiming.

_Breeding with seed. Claiming with marks._

Hajime had been surprised to find that he _enjoyed_ the chaotic, mindless fucking. He even enjoyed letting loose-- allowing his instincts to take the reins for short bursts of time. However, he still missed the tender love-making that came from being in control...and being able to tease his Omega into desperate submission.

 _Maybe._..the next bout would be weak enough for him to keep a leash on his instincts for a bit longer _._ At least, long enough for him to have a bit of classic _Hajime_ fun in the bedroom.

When Oikawa's heat finally came around, at nearly eight in the evening, he clamped down on his feral nature with a mindful vice grip and readied himself to fight back with all his might.

_Ten minutes. Just ten minutes of control. That was all he needed._

“Hajime…” Oikawa panted and dropped down to his knees on the hardwood floor of the living room-- coating the oak boards with a sudden gush of slick.

“Come. Here.” Hajime barked in command and pointed at the ground in front of him.

Oikawa gasped as his sudden, domineering scent, then began a slow crawl towards him. When the boy finally sat, kneeling in front of him with large, pleading eyes, he smirked. “Stay,” he barked, knowing full well that his shaking mate would do so.  

Oikawa whimpered, whining like a puppy, as he turned on his heels and walked towards their messy fuck-nest of a mattress. He quickly shuffled through the blankets and pulled a grey hoodie out from the disarray, dark eyes shining with lewd ideas. In one swift motion, he yanked the long, black string from inside the hood and dropped the garment to the floor.

“Pleaseeeee,” Oikawa mewled, abdomen quivering with desire-- angry that his Alpha was ignoring him. “Hajime, pleaseeeeeee.”

Hajime growled his understanding as he closed the gap, then he knelt down in front of his lustful mate and smirked again. “Put out your hands,” he commanded, internally shoving back against his eager instincts-- riled up from his close proximity to his heated mate.

Oikawa immediately complied, but his hazel eyes looked supremely skeptical. “I’m...in a fit...Hajime,” he said, breathless. “I...know it’s...not as _consuming.._.as the earlier ones...but...fuck.”

Hajime chuckled the strained words and laced the black string around the boy’s slender wrists with professional ease-- he had done this many times before.

“After...will you...fuck me?” Oikawa panted as Hajime tugged him a few feet to the left.

 “Oh. I will,” Hajime growled with a cocked eyebrow-- extremely pleased with himself for controlling his instincts around an Omega in heat. “But you got round one. And two. And three. And every round we’ve had this weekend. Now it’s _my_ turn.”

“Fine,” Oikawa conceded with a heavy exhale of scented air and adjusted his arms in front of his keeling position. “Then the next round...is...mine.”

“Deal,” Hajime growled, chocolate eyes darkening as Oikawa, bound and helpless, began exuding waves of intense arousal into the evening air. He looped the string through the steel latch of the trap door to wine cellar, then moved back a few paces to admire his slender mate in full.

“Please,” Oikawa pleaded, leaning his chest forward over his bound wrists to meet Hajime's intense gaze. “ _Please_...Hajime...Alpha...I need it.”

Hajime reached behind him to grab a living chair and lurched it behind himself to take a seat. A coy grin passed over his face and he lifted an eyebrow as Oikawa slowly devolved into a quivering mess of slurring lust. He leaned forward to casually rest his elbows on his muscular thighs. “Please _what?_ You want my cock, Omega?”

“Yes... _obviously_...I do!” His mate whined back with wide eyes. “I'm on fire…!”

He smirked at the desperate words and pushed down his sweatpants, pooling them at his ankles as he sat back in the plush chair. “Then show me,” he snarled as he gestured at his pulsing cock with a large hand. His sexual scent were unyielding-- commanding action from his Omega.

Oikawa whimpered at the domineering fragrance and rushed to lean his lithe body forward-- face inches from Hajime's swollen member.

Oikawa squirmed, trying to push his body the remaining distance and Hajime spoke again. “You’re going to have to do better than that. Are you going to show me how much you want it?” He chastised with a throaty rumble-- unleashed by his unwitting instincts.

Oikawa gave him a stern look that was one part frustrated, two parts aroused, then compiled. With great effort, he lurched his body forward a few more inches to run a hungry tongue up the full length of Hajime’s heavy shaft.

“ _Good_ boy,” Hajime cooed as he caressed a gentle hand over Oikawa’s soft cheek. " _Goooooood_ boy.”

Oikawa’s flushed face glanced up and rosy lips took in the first inches of his growing cock. The pleasure was, as usual, insatiable. Oikawa’s mouth sheathed his member in a feeling of pure ecstasy and the boy’s desperate scent for his knot shot him up with a heavy sense of Alpha pride. He felt his cock push deeper, past Oikawa’s swollen lips, where it was stimulated by an expert tongue, swirling around to coat it with spit.

After a few minutes of euphoria, he leaned forward on his chair to flick Oikawa's _not-so-hidden_ silver piercing. “You seem to be enjoying yourself, _Omega_ ,” he snarled and Oikawa’s throat vibrated over his cock in a needy moan-- lips humming against his full length in hot desire. “Just _look_ at the mess you've made,” he remarked with a feral rumble of his own, dark eyes locked on the glistening puddle beneath his mate. “You’re so fucking desperate for my knot...you really want it that bad?”

Oikawa's mouth popped off of Hajime's cock and he nodded vigorously-- mouth and jaw glistening with a mixture of spit and cum. “I...yes. I...need...it. Hajime. I...can’t...go...on...much...longer. Not...like...this.”

At the frenzied tone, Hajime instincts reared up behind his eyes, threatening to slice through his retina’s with their animalistic fury. They wanted control. They wanted to fuck the quivering Omega into oblivion, but he wasn’t ready. Not yet. He gripped into Oikawa’s soft hair and jerked the boy’s head back to gaze into his foggy eyes.

“More. Show. Me. How. Much,” he commanded as he shoved his chair out of the way and took a small step back to stand further away from Oikawa’s reach. He wanted to see _more_ desperation-- _more_ unchecked lust in his mate’s chocolate eyes. “Show. Me. Now.”

**Oikawa~**

Oikawa whimpered out an instinctual plea as he arched his body forward and pushed out his pink tongue as far as he could. He was absolutely _desperate_ to please his Alpha into action-- to please the man into knotting him. _Alpha’s...cock...too...far...away…_ he thought out through his hazy mind. He had a better amount of control over his conscious mind lately, but the flurry of Omega instincts still left him feeling disoriented with euphoric lust.

“Not. Good. Enough,” Hajime snarled, his scent commanding Oikawa for more-- more wild need for his knot. “I want to see you _work_ for it.”

At the feral command, Oikawa tried to jerk his body forward another inch. His hands slowly turned to crimson as he cut off his circulation from the tightly wound string around his delicate wrists. _He needed to reach Hajime’s cock. He needed to show his Alpha just how much he wanted to be filled._ He stuck his tongue out further, but barely grazed the glistening cock-- mere centimeters away now. He whined out in frustration at his failure as his body flooded with another hot wave of frenzied lust. He glanced at Hajime, flashing the Alpha with another set of beseeching eyes, and rocked his hips against steel trap door beneath him to alleviate some of the blazing pressure in his gut.

“ _Please_...” He cried out, nearly sobbing from his rampant arousal. The hopeless position that had forced upon him was becoming agonizing-- his body was a massive pit of fire that needed to be released . It radiated out from his abdomen in an aching sort of ecstasy that could not be tamed by anything but an Alpha knot. _By Hajime’s knot._ “C-closer…come...closer. _Please...closer,_ ” he pleaded again, this time using his rocking body to entice his mate.

“ _Closer_?” Hajime growled with a raised eyebrow and leaned forward to grab Oikawa’s small cock with a full hand. “ _You_ come closer. _Omega_. That. Is. The. Deal.”

Oikawa moaned at the warm contact on his too swollen member and arched forward in a sudden orgasm as Hajime thumbed over the silver balls in his tip. Before he had the chance to enjoy his pent up release, his Alpha yanked him forward by the back of his head and squeezed his flush cheeks to open his mouth.

“Are you going to do what I say?” Hajime challenged with a deep, throaty rumble that left Oikawa, once again, shivering in need. He could orgasm all day long, but it wouldn’t do _anything_ to end his bout of heat. He nodded and Hajime pushed two fingers inside his open mouth to feel over his wet tongue, smearing messy spit across his swollen lips. “Good boy. Now suck,” the Alpha commanded, unleashing an overbearing scent of aggression that snapped back Oikawa's attention from his glassy stupor.

Hajime tore his fingers back and Oikawa kept his mouth open, holding his tense shoulders nearly a foot beyond his tied hands. Hajime sluggishly rolled his neck and remained in place. His dark figure was overbearing and bristling with an attractive dominance that shook Oikawa's knees against the hardwood floor. The Alpha grabbed the back of his head, pushed a heavy cock inside his open mouth, and jammed the massive length down his throat. Oikawa reveled in the salty taste, happily relaxing his muscles to allow Hajime full access-- it was not the hole that he _wanted_ to be filled, but it was a start.

_And it was a glorious start._

“Good. _Omega_ ,” Hajime cooed, holding Oikawa in place with a firm hand in his hair. “You want this inside you?”

Oikawa pushed his chin upwards, nose grazing the tough muscles of the Alpha’s lower abdomen as the large cock pulsed against the inside of his throat. He attempted a nod, foggy eyes asking his mate to give him what he needed most.

“Is that a _yes_?” Hajime snarled in question, his eyes darkening to a deep hue of instinctual emotion-- black and fully dilated.

_Not long now. Not long until his Alpha caved and gave him what he needed most._

Oikawa nodded his response again, this time more frantically, and rocked his hips against the steel trap door-- attempting, and failing, to satiate the fire that pulsed through his stiff body. Hajime held him in place for a few more moments, watching him intently with an increasingly feral scent. Then, the Alpha abruptly jerked his cock away and planted a gentle slap across his cheek as he gasped for new air.

“The only time you're _allowed_ to rock," Hajime growled in a near roar and caressed a loving thumb along Oikawa's scar. “Is. Against. My. Cock.”

“Yes…Alpha.”

_That was all he wanted._

He leaned back, happy to lessen the pressure on his tied hands, and opened his mouth. His pink tongue fell over his lower lip in a dog-like lull and he waited. If Hajime wasn’t going to knot him, the next best option for relief was with his Alpha's cock in his mouth.

Hajime smirked at his submissive stance took a step forward-- his tall figure teeming with an intense, Alpha scent of carnal lust. Oikawa grazed his mate’s throbbing cock over his moist tongue, maintaining the eye contact that he couldn’t bare to look away from anyways. It took _everything_ he had to not rock his hips against the ground again, and it didn’t help that Hajime’s earlier slap had only spurred on his arousal further-- he wouldn’t mind receiving it a second time.

“Please…” He whimpered after dragging his tongue over the tip of Hajime’s member. Then, he licked his moist lips and rocked his hips in a sensual motion, not caring about his Alpha's threat. “Fuck me…”

For a brief moment, the world stood still, then the air around them suddenly snapped and Hajime knelt down in front of him, blinking slowly over black pupils. Without another word, the Alpha untied his sore wrists and hoisted him up into a sweaty embrace. Hajime’s animalistic scent swirled around him and Oikawa knew exactly what it was commanding-- _be quiet, let me fuck you, let me make you feel good._ He kept his instinctual whimpering to a minimum as Hajime gingerly lowered his naked body to the mattress. The Alpha rolled him onto his back and moved over him-- lining up a thick, pulsing cock to his moist sex.

Oikawa expected him to plunge in, egged on by his Alpha instincts and Oikawa’s own heat, but Hajime’s muscles tensed and he slowly worked the tip of his member inside. Oikawa moaned loudly at the unhurried penetration and he legs curled around Hajime’s hips as the man sluggishly pushed in deeper.

One quarter of the way in, Oikawa’s gut was a torrent of aroused fire.

Half way in, his body started shaking and electric sparks shot through his naval.

Nearly the full way in, he scratched at Hajime’s back, drawing fresh drops of blood from older wounds with his frenzied nails.

Hajime stalled just inches from filling him completely. “You’re so _fucking_ beautiful,” he growled softly and nuzzled into Oikawa's scent glands.

Oikawa panted into his mate's sweaty hair, stomach fluttering with butterflies at the familiar scent that was trapped in the brown locks. “Please fill me. I want _all of you._ I always want all of you.”

Hajime pulled away from his neck and brought their foreheads together-- commanding full eye contact. Then, he thrust his hips hard against the wet hole until his heavy balls touched Oikawa’s pale skin.

“Oh, fuuuuuuuuuuck,” Oikawa moaned as his hazel eyes rolled back in sheer euphoria.

Nothing, _absolutely nothing,_ could compare to being filled to the brim, during a bout of heat, by his mate. Hajime’s blanketing fragrance was both domineering and possessive-- whirling in the air around them with his own sexual scent. They coalesced so beautifully that he couldn’t remember what they smelled like before that weekend-- before they had mated.

“Look. At. Me,” Hajime snarled out in command and he snapped his glassy eyes back to the Alpha’s chiseled face.

He ran a tender hand over Hajime’s jaw, then slid it down to the back of his neck and held on. The Alpha groaned at the touch and brought their foreheads back together before pulling his cock back out to the tip. Oikawa sucked in a shaky breath and his mate thrust back inside him in a swift movement that pulled another ecstatic moan from his swollen lips.

Hajime continued to thrust-- pulling out slowly, then quickly shoving back inside Oikawa’s flooded sex. Oikawa wasn’t sure how long it went on for. He lost himself in his mate’s black eyes, in his powerful and possessive scent, and in the electric feeling that shot through his navel with each strong plunge inside his ass. The entire weekend had been flush with animalistic mating, but this time, he was making love with his new mate.

_Making love in its purest form._

Oikawa had never been loved during sex in his entire life, and certainly not like this. He felt warm tears pool in his foggy eyes and they quickly spilled over onto his cheeks as his aching hole was knotted.

Hajime gently brushed his tears away with a careful thumb-- implicitly knowing _exactly_ where the emotions were coming from. “I. Love. You,” he whispered with a throaty growl that hummed new life into Oikawa's body.

Oikawa smiled, a genuine, joyous smile and moved in to plant a light kiss on Hajime’s hard jaw. He nuzzled in close to the Alpha's neck and did something he hadn't done since his first night with Hajime-- he purred. “I love you too…”

_And this time, he didn’t mind saying it._


	49. Equality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY I KNOW THIs IS A BORING CHApTER. 
> 
> BUT: After this one, we should have a nice set of thrilling chapters, right up to the end of this!
> 
> Oh yeah and if anyone is curious:  
> Alpha dominance hierarchy (excluding situational dominance which is more important):  
> Hajime/Kabuto (sneaky dominance that they rarely feel the need to use)  
> Kuroo (Casually dominant)  
> Bokuto/Tobio (trigger happy/when he decides he has time for it)  
> Daichi/Tanaka (Level-headed/eager beaver)  
> Yuji/Tsukishima (Scrappy/Analytical + they can both turn on the fire when the occasion calls for it)  
> Asahi (Teddy bear unless angry)

**Chapter Forty Nine: Equality**

**Hajime~**

Hajime had pulled the empty mattress nearly the full length of the large living room when he finally decided to take a break. He dropped it to the hardwood with an audible _thud_ and dusted his hands out in front of him. “Yo, what's it feel like?” He called over to Oikawa-- standing near the french doors to the back veranda.

The chestnut boy took the final bite of his granola bar, then bent over to toss a few stray pillows onto an ancient looking couch. “What, my heat?”

Hajime rolled his shoulder to work out an aching knot and nodded. “Yeah, what’s it like?”

“Hmm,” Oikawa mumbled and looked up to the ceiling in thought. “Like...my body is….like there’s _too much_ pleasure. So much that it’s actually painful and I would do _anything_ to make it stop.”

“You don’t like it?” Hajime asked as moved to grab at the heavy mattress once more.

“No, it’s not that,” Oikawa replied as he folded the last of the blankets in his slender hands. “Of course I _like_ it…”

“Could have-” Hajime faltered, grunting as he flipped the mattress vertical to squeeze it inside the spare bedroom. He shoved it through the narrow doorway and it dropped down to the floor in a puff of heavy dust. “Could have fooled me,” he repeated with a coy smirk as he walked back towards the fireplace to gather his things.

Oikawa cocked a manicured eyebrow his way and snorted. “What? You don’t think I enjoyed myself this weekend?”

“No…” Hajime replied in a gruff tone and pulled his packed bag over a broad shoulder. “I think you _thoroughly_ enjoyed yourself…”

“I did,” the chesnut boy remarked as he pulled his own knapsack on. “I enjoyed myself a lot.”

“I just know that you hate being out of control,” Hajime put forth and pulled Oikawa’s delicate hand into his own. “And being in heat seems pretty out of control to me…”

“Oh, I absolutely _detest_ being out of control,” his Omega agreed and flashed a sweet smile that had him internally squirming. “But I know that I’m in good hands with you~~”

His feral instincts liked the acknowledgement. They blasted through his chest and pulled a satisfied growl from his vibrating throat. “Very. Good. Hands,” he stated in a near snarl and moved in to smell Oikawa’s lightly quaffed hair.  

“Okay, _Alpha,”_ Oikawa chirped as he tugged on the brass handle of the front door. “We talked about this. I need a twenty four hour hiatus from fucking. So hold it together please~~”

 _Oh, he was trying to._ Oikawa’s new scent, his mated scent, had Hajime’s instincts riled up at every turn. He _loved_ that he could now smell his own fragrance, laced in with his Omega’s natural scent. _Oikawa was intoxicating before...but now? Fuuuuuuuuuck, he didn’t want to keep his hands off the boy. Not even for a second._

“Did you even hear what I just said?” Oikawa asked with a heavy sigh-- smelling Hajime’s sudden burst of arousal. “Twenty. Four. Hours. Just one day! We have so many things to catch up on!”

“Like?” Hajime growled out as he fiddled with the keys in his hands to lock lake house door-- mind zeroed in on a mental image of his Omega, naked and begging.

“Like...our homework!” Oikawa remarked with a knowing nod-- trying to convince himself of its importance. “Oh...fuck. And we should probably check in on Daichi and Suga…”

Hajime’s pleasant mental image immediately vanished-- replaced by a ball of tense upset in his gut at the thought of his poor captain. He knew that they had left at an inopportune moment, but Oikawa’s heat had been more important to him than anything else at the time.

But that didn’t stop him from feeling incredibly guilty. No one expected the two boys to end things. No one at all.   

“Daichi’s bunking with your coach…” Oikawa whispered, more to himself than to Hajime. “What are we going-”

“Do you think you can convince Suga to take him back?” Hajime interrupted as he turned the rusty key in the old lock.

“I...no. No, I don’t think I can. Suga is...stubborn in his ways. Once he makes a decision, he’ll double down on it. It doesn’t matter if he thinks its wrong, he’ll still do it. I don’t know if it’s pride or just stupidity...”

“Can Miyo shake some sense into him? She’s pretty... _persuasive.”_

“I honestly don’t know. She might have more sway than me, Suga idolizes her. I don’t know. I’ll give her a call once we get on the road. I have a few texts from her, but they’re from Saturday. I need a new update.”

Hajime nodded as he shuffled out his car key and led them down the rickety porch steps. _Yeah, he needed a new update, too._  

**Miyo~**

_(Four Days Earlier)_

Miyo sped through the University streets in her small car, grinding her teeth to stay her rampant anxiety. She had been pulled over by a rather unfriendly Alpha cop who seemed _adamant_ on giving her a distracted driving ticket for being on the phone. She didn’t care about the stupid fine. What she did care about, was that she had been forced to hang up on Suga-- and now the silver boy wasn’t answering any of her calls or texts.

As she neared the location they had planned to meet, her green eyes darted over each student that even remotely resembled him. She circled the General Store four times, mind devolving into a state of motherly panic when he was nowhere to be found.

“Fuck,” she muttered under her breath, then flipped her signal to pull off next to the curb. “Stupid goddamn frustrating boy…”

She threw the car in park, gathered up her leather purse from the passenger seat, and sent another, _where the fuck are you,_ text to Suga. Her eyes lingered on the bright screen for a few moments, waiting for a reply. When none came, she pushed out of her vehicle and slammed the black door behind her in an angry _bang_. Immediately, she smelled the autumn air for Suga’s familiar scent, but the area was too heavily concentrated with students for her to ascertain anything. Her nose was utterly useless. After whispering out a bunch of hot curses, she put two hands up to the glass windows of the General Store and searched for a silver head of hair within. Again, she found nothing.

_Christ, the boy was going to be the death of her._

She turned away from the store and walked briskly to the adjoining brick building-- the _Cat’s Meow Cafe and Bookstore._ A gated patio was built out front of the quaint business and it housed six tables, each with their own pastel-coloured umbrella. Several Alphas, and a few mated Omegas, were seated in the metal chairs with various drinks, chatting furiously in the afternoon sun.

As Miyo neared the entrance to the cafe, the heavy door swung open and a set of brass bells chimed out. A very tall, and very fit, Alpha bumped into her, nearly spilling a freshly bought cappuccino over them both.

“Jesus,” the woman cursed as she fought to regain her balance on the cobblestone. Her blue eyes snapped down to Miyo and the anger behind them quickly vanished. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. You’re so fucking tiny!”

Miyo grit her teeth, gaze flickering from the woman’s angular face to the plastic bags in her large hand-- bags with the General Store logo.  

“Excuse me,” she started, ignoring the Alpha’s coy chirp at her small frame. “When you were shopping next door, did you happen to see a male Omega wandering around? He has silver hair, it’s pretty distinct, you can’t miss it. I know he was here at least fifteen minutes ago but I can’t seem to find him now...”

The brunette woman licked at the edges of her paper cup, tongue curling over the drops of her spilled cappuccino. Miyo tapped her foot anxiously, then stiffened when the Alpha’s scent coiled around her in a soft layer of protection. Protection was rarely given by Alphas-- especially to Omegas that were already mated. Her brows furrowed at the strange occurrence and she opened her mouth to vocalize her curiosity, but was quickly cut short.  

“You should reign in your scent a bit,” the Alpha asserted, then happily slurped at her warm drink. “And don’t give me that, _I’m mated,_ crap. An anxious Omega scent is still an anxious Omega scent. It’s reckless to release it around so many Alphas…doesn’t matter whether or not you’re mated.”

Miyo found herself, once again, cursing under her breath. The woman was absolutely correct. Alpha instincts were easily roused by Omega fragrances, especially bad ones. Her mated scent wouldn’t draw any attention from the Alphas around her, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t affect them. Her upset could easily cause an unwanted brawl, and the bodily damage that came with it.

“Shit,” she swore at her own idiocy, then hurried to pull back her tense fragrance to a more acceptable level. “Thank you. I’m just a bit stressed at the moment. I’m not normally so careless, I swear on my life.”

The female Alpha cocked a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “I can believe that. Sooooo, this silver haired kid...I think I saw him. Was he really upset about something? I assume that’s why you’re so desperate to find him...”

Miyo stiffened. “Yes.”

Suga wasn’t just _upset--_ she had _never_ seen the kid so disconnected from reality before. He always kept himself poised and together, no matter how bad things got for him or his flock. After hearing his wavering voice on the phone, she was more than a little concerned for his welfare-- particularly his mental health. It had seemed so close to snapping, if it hadn’t already.

“Okay,” the Alpha acknowledged with a slight nod. “Then yeah, he was here a little while ago, but I think he was smart enough to bugger off. His scent was riling up the nearby Alphas...including me.”

“Do you happen to know which way he went?!” Miyo quickly replied through clenched teeth. “I’m desperate, _really_ desperate to find him.”

The Alpha sighed, shaking her head at the ground. Then, she met Miyo’s worried gaze and flashed a sweet smile that somehow calmed her frantic nerves.

“If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he went towards the campus fields. Lots of wind there. Good for dispersing scents,” the woman rattled off, her angular features thoughtful. ‘And,” she continued, grabbing Miyo’s shoulder with a firm hand. “Before you run off on your own, I’d rather it if you’d let me come with you. Your scent is still off. I don’t like it.”

Miyo shrugged off the Alpha and let out of a puff of new anxious air-- she didn't have time to argue with the woman. “Fine, do what you want. Let’s go.”

She turned on her heels and marched down the sidewalk with the female Alpha in tow. At first, she held her focus on Suga, but her thoughts began to swirl around in her curiosity. _What was the Alpha’s motive?_ The woman was being overly generous in accompanying her-- she would get absolutely nothing in return for aiding an already mated Omega. Her brows furrowed at the perplexing situation, then her mind quickly jumped to Binky.

_The flower shop owner had helped her without question as well…_

_Ukai and his Alphas had helped her flock and didn’t expect anything in return…_

Perhaps, there were more decent Alphas out in the world than she had initially thought.  

“You’re that Omega professor,” the brunette woman called out in a sing-song voice from behind. “Right?”

“I am,” Miyo replied without turning around. The green expanse of fields were less than a block away and her emerald eyes were already scanning the small figures from afar.

“I’ve never had the pleasure of taking one of your courses. Oh, I’m Nala, by the way,” the Alpha put forth in a lazy tone. “I’ve always tried to sign up, but there are barely any spots for Alpha students in your classes…they fill up fast.”

“Yeah. I mostly teach Omegas,” Miyo absentmindedly agreed with a wave of her slender hand.

Nala caught up to her side two long strides and glanced down at her with knowing eyes. “Oh, I am well aware. It’s kind of unfortunate, don’t you think? It's such a waste...talk about perpetuating the same stereotypes!”

“Mmm. Yes,” Miyo murmured back, already tuned out to the conversation-- she had more important matters to focus on.  

“I mean, why bother having both genders in _one_ University if you’re just going to keep their classes separate? What’s the point in that?”

“Mhm…”

_Wait, what did the Alpha just say?_

“You should really push to have more Alpha spots in your classes...I think you’d be pleasantly surprised with those of us that show up. I’m not the only keener that wants to check out your lectures...”

That successfully caught Miyo’s attention. “Pleasantly surprised, how?” She asked as they stepped onto the edges of the green pitch.

Nala snorted and crossed her lean arms over her ample bust. “All I’m saying is, some of us are actually _interested_ in what you, an Omega, has to say about things,” she asserted with an easy shrug and took another sip of her cappuccino.

Miyo stalled in place for a moment and turned to face Nala. She glanced up through narrowed lids-- still suspicious and skeptical of the tall woman’s intentions. “Really. You’re interested in hearing _my_ perspective.”

A heavy sigh escaped the Alpha’s plump lips and she shuffled on her feet as she gathered her thoughts. “You want to hear my honest opinion, Professor? Because you might not like what I have to say…”

“Oh, don’t be so coy,” Miyo challenged, granting the woman her full attention for a few moments. “Hit me with it.”

Nala cocked her eyebrow and laughed at the plain challenge before speaking. “Well, we’re not _all_ monsters. Some of us are, yes. I can’t deny that, but we’re not all like that. And when you guys lump us together in one, horrific category, you’re doing the exact same thing that we’ve been doing to you. You’re marginalizing us…you’re using a blanket perspective on us and it sucks.”

Miyo opened her mouth to protest, but Nala dismissed her with a wave of her paper cup. “Listen. Let me finish before you respond,” she said with a subtle tone of command that was not lost on Miyo. “I can only _imagine_ the shit that you’ve gone through, personally, to get to where you are now. And I dislike that you’ve had to claw your way through an Alpha dominated world. It shouldn’t be like that. But I also hold a lot of respect for you because of it. You’re a victim. And I can accept that all Omegas are victims because of us Alphas and our uneven society, but _you_ don’t take pity on yourself or wallow in that fact. You accept it, and push past it at full force.”

“Thank you…” Miyo replied after a few moments of silence. She was still on guard-- wary of what the chatty Alpha still had left to say on the difficult topic. “I...appreciate the acknowledgement, especially from a young Alpha such as yourself.”

The woman nodded her thanks, then narrowed her blue eyes and her mouth set in a hard line. “However, I don’t think it’s right for Omegas, including you, to assume the worst of all of us. I understand why you guys feel that way. It’s wise to have caution with Alphas, but it doesn’t help things. I _want_ things to change, just like you do. I _want_ more equality between us. But I can’t help make that happen if Omegas treat me with the same disdain that I feel for my own kind. When you guys lump me in with the classic Alpha stereotypes, it make me feel hostile towards you. I want to work alongside you guys, but that can’t happen if nobody had the balls to throw caution to the wind and accept people for what they are...as people. Not Omegas, not Alphas, just people.”

The Alpha’s honest words hit Miyo like a heavy sack of bricks. _Fuck_... _maybe she wasn’t any better than the Alphas she so despised._ She had openly hated most of them-- lumped them together in the same way that they did to her. “I…” She attempted, biting her lip with renewed anxiety, but she took a deep breath, accepting Nala’s wise notion as honest and true. Then, she grinned and gave the woman a motherly smack on the bicep. “You know what? I _like_ you. You're a smartie. I want you in one of my classes...it would shake things up in a good way, I think."

Nala's bright eyes shone with a combination of admiration and pride and she smiled in turn. “Oh god, I'm so happy that you didn't bite my head off just now for what I said!" She exclaimed with a dramatic sigh of relief. "I would _love_ that. Seriously. You’re the only Omega professor in the entire country...I don’t want to miss an opportunity to share a few ideas with you!”

Miyo cocked her head to the side as a familiar scent snaked into her nostrils. It was mild, almost completely devoid of life, but she knew that it belonged to Suga. "Listen, Nala," she started, green eyes following the fragrance along the edge of the field in front of them. "I’d like to hear more of what you have to say, really. I think it could be good, for me and for all Omegas. We need to stop making enemies of each other because of old wounds...”

"I couldn't have said it better myself!" Nala replied with a wag of her finger. "If there's anything I can do to-"

"Actually," Miyo interjected in a hurry and grinned. "Could you stick around for a bit longer? The Omega...the one that I've been looking for...I think he would do well to hear some of the stuff that you have to say. He's a bit...lost in his ambitions right now." 

"Well that sounds...obscure...but okay! I'll certainly do my best to lend an Alpha hand, then. If you think it would do the kid some good," Nala remarked with excited eyes and, before Miyo could get another word in edgewise, the woman pulled her forward by the hand. “Now, let's go round up this missing Omega of yours.”


	50. Broken at the Seams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part Five: Unique Affairs
> 
> In the final part of this series, Daichi is tested to the limits while Suga does his best to shoulder his Omega emotions. An incident at Waterfront park sparks changes within the pack that no single member was prepared for. Will the housemates come to understand their differences and accept the love that they all deserve?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the long gap between updates. My bday came around again and it's always a shitty time of year. I mean, nobody likes aging after you get to 18 (or 21 for you poor sods in the States)!
> 
> I know this is a set up chapter but we are now *officially* in the final arc and it's gonna be a doozy (HOPEFULLY). 
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Thanks SO MUCH for reading and commenting and Kudos, they are so lovely and wonderful *kiss*

**Part Five: Unique Affairs**

**Chapter Fifty: Broken at the Seams**

**Oikawa~**

_(Tuesday evening, present day)_

Hajime pulled the car up to the curb in front of their yellow home and cut the purring engine. Dusk had fallen upon the neighborhood and Oikawa found himself relieved to be back with his nest. He loved his new mate with every ounce of his being, but there was no replacing his lifelong Omega friends-- they provided a unique sense of comfort that Hajime couldn’t. Perhaps it was greedy, but he wanted them both by his side.

“I have to admit,” Hajime remarked as he pocketed his keys and pushed open the car door. “I’m going to miss fucking you into oblivion…”

Oikawa rolled his hazel eyes, but his heart sped up inside his chest at the honest statement. “Oh, there’s always next month to look forward to…” He trailed off, then shifted in his leather seat to poke the Alpha in the shoulder. “But next time, you are _not_ tying me to the entrance of that...interrogation room of terror...and getting a killer blowjob out of me! Why on earth did you-”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. And it _was_ a killer blowjob, by the way,” Hajime interjected, then moved in to plant an unsuspecting kiss on Oikawa’s parted lips. “But now I have a better memory of the place! I can look at that trap door and think about how you-”

“Oh, _goddammit,”_ Oikawa grumbled and crossed his long arms over his chest. His mate might not look like it at first glance, but he was a cheeky bastard, through and through.

Hajime’s brown eyes widened and he brought a hand to his heart, feigning innocence. “What?!”

Oikawa rolled his eyes and huffed out a bit of frustrated air. “How am I supposed to argue now that you've said something like that!”

The Alpha smirked-- the classically, irritating smirk that churned Oikawa’s insides with instinctual hunger for the man. “That was my intention.”

*******

Oikawa was unsurprised to hear that Suga and Daichi were still on the rocks. He had been Suga’s friend for a long time and he knew full well that the boy was both stubborn and ambitious in his cause-- a dangerous combination for any Alpha that crossed his path. Oikawa had tried to talk with his silver nestmate many times over the next few days, he had even approached the topic with uncharacteristic care, but Suga had avoided his pestering with professional ease.

It was abundantly clear to him, and to all of the yellow housemates, that Suga was both emotionally damaged and pained. The boy’s scent was almost non-existent and his eyes were dull and lifeless-- even when he plastered a grin on his pale face they remained ambivalent.

Oikawa had joined Miyo for tea at her home, mere hours after he had arrived back in town, to discuss the tragic state of affairs, but the woman merely shook her head and granted him with a pensive smile of her own. While she had pulled Suga out of his frantic head space the previous Friday, she said that she couldn’t convince the boy to reconcile his feelings with Daichi. Suga  was too tenacious for his own good.

“Time will heal all wounds,” Miyo had said with a unconvincing nod. “Daichi is a good man and if Suga doesn't see that, then it is his loss. We have to allow him to make his own mistakes.”

Oikawa had been skeptical-- his professor rarely passed up the opportunity to involve herself in the affairs of her nest. “You really believe that? Really?”

“No...but we don’t have any other options. Believe me, I have tried everything I can think of short of threatening him with a weapon! All we can do is show that we are here for him. If he decides that he needs to talk about it, then we’ll be there.”

Oikawa knew that his professor was correct. No matter how much they wanted to fix Suga, to fix his own stubborn mistakes, they couldn’t-- not if the boy refused to listen to reason.

For a brief moment while he sat at the dining table on Friday evening, going over his class notes as his housemates bustled around him, he was hit with a sudden wave of panic. He had been so honed in of Suga’s state of mind of late that he found himself suddenly lost in a daydream-- one where he was in Suga’s position, imagining his life without Hajime. His heart abruptly lurched and his breath hitched in his throat as he tried to stay his shaking hands underneath the table. He wasn't sure how long he remained in his frantic state, but a warm and familiar scent eventually washed over him and he felt two broad arms embrace him from behind.

“Are you okay…?” Hajime whispered as grazed his nose over Oikawa’s scent glands. “You’re upset…”

Oikawa felt his body relax into his mate’s protective scent and his frantic thoughts floated away into oblivion. “Yeah, sorry. I’m fine...I’m just thinking about some stuff. Thanks for checking in.”

“Mmm, how could I not when you smell so frantic? I could smell you from the third floor. You’re thinking about Suga, again.”

Oikawa smirked at his Alpha’s uncanny ability to read his scent and sighed. “Yeah. He thinks that he’s hiding his feelings from us, but he’s not. He’s-”

“Absolutely lifeless,” Hajime interjected before inhaling into the crown of Oikawa’s head. “Daichi’s in a bad state, too.”

“I take it that your little Alpha pep talk with him today didn’t go so well, huh?” Oikawa remarked as he flipped over the page of his organic chemistry book, trying to distract himself from the sad topic of the conversation.

“No. No it did not. He's dejected and stubborn.”

“Two stubborn boys...so he’s a mess too, then?”

“Just as bad as Suga is. And just as bad at hiding it.”

Oikawa sighed again, this time heavier and more defeated. “Fuck,” he said and rolled his head back to glance up at his Alpha’s chocolate eyes. “I don’t want to talk-”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, either,” Hajime interrupted, finishing the sentence with casual ease. “So let’s not. Let’s go and grab a burger from campus. It’s Friday night, we should live it up a little.”

“Oh, I hardly think that going out to a burger joint constitutes as _living it up,”_ Oikawa remarked and wriggled an eyebrow. “Especially for a playboy such as yourself.”

Hajime raised a finger and wagged it in the air. _“Former_ playboy, remember? Now let’s go,” he said as he reached past Oikawa to close the heavy textbook on the oak table. “It’s getting late, I’m hungry, and there’s nothing to eat in this god forsaken place. Yuji and Tanaka are such gluttons.”

**Keiji~**

Keiji walked down the sidewalk alongside Suga, with Yachi and Yamaguchi trailing behind them under the warm, afternoon sun. Suga was still a grey mess of melancholy and, aside from going to class, he had been holed up in their nest room for the entire week. Keiji had even shrugged off Bokuto’s Friday evening advances to join his silver friend for the night, but he had failed to get the boy to discuss anything of merit. Instead, they had studied for their Latin Literature final, then fell asleep in a mess of cuddles. When Keiji had woken the following morning, he had at least convinced Suga to accompany him to the waterfront park on the edge of the residence district. The kid needed to get a bit of sun, he was as pale as a cancer patient and had the scent to match.

“Do you think the questions will be reading comprehension? Or memorization?” Suga pondered quietly, almost to himself, as they padded along the warm pavement. “Or maybe they will be-”

“Probably reading comp,” Keiji asserted as they neared the green expanse. His gaze flickered behind him to ensure that Yachi and Yamaguchi had not trailed too far behind, then he raked it back to the park-- smiling briefly at the glittering ocean waves that lay beyond sandy shores.

“You think so?” Suga asked softly, looking at him will dull eyes that left his heart aching.

“Yeah. Now can we not talk about school anymore? I need a goddamn break,” he replied as they made their way across the well-kept field. The park was sparsely populated, many of the University students were on campus attending the basketball finals, but the few that remained behind were playing their own recreational sports on the short grass. Most of them were Alphas, but Keiji knew that there was safety in numbers-- and in the daylight. “Let’s hole up here for a bit,” he said as he gestured at a red-painted bench that was situated along the paved walkway. He wanted to enjoy the afternoon breeze a bit, and the ocean always made it smell more fresh.  

Suga gracefully took a seat, eyes lingering on the calm sea that lay beyond the brick retaining wall in front of them. “Nice day out,” he murmured, craning his head back to look up at an overarching cherry blossom tree. “Thanks...for getting me out of the house. I, uh, needed it, I think.”

Keiji snickered at the careful honesty and plopped down next to his silver friend on the hard wood of the bench. “Yeah, you _did_ need it. You look like shit, you know that?”

“I feel worse,” Suga replied with a quiet, shaky laugh. “Believe me.”

“Oh, I believe it.”

 _It’s your own fault_ \-- Keiji wanted to say it. He wanted to chastise the silver boy for his choices, for his shitty actions, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Suga’s deathly scent churned his gut, he didn’t want to make the boy to lose himself any more than he already had. “Hey, Yachi,” he called over his shoulder, smelling the girl’s approach. “You’ve got a final on Monday too, right?”

Yachi rounded the red bench to stand in front of him, with Yamaguchi following suit a few moments later. “Yeah, but my tests are all online, as usual. I think it will be a piece of cake!” She remarked with a sweet smile and waved her small hand in the air to illustrate her victory. “I’m more concerned about Yuji. He’s...not very good at studying.”

Keiji rolled his eyes and yawned. “On that, we can relate. Bokuto is terrible at school, too,” he agreed, then smirked at Yamaguchi’s unsuspecting figure. “Hey lucky you, Yams. Tsukishima is suuuuuch a bookworm.”

Yamaguchi’s freckled face flushed crimson and his dark eyes widened considerably. “Tsuki’s...he’s not...we’re not...shut up, Keiji!”

Yachi laughed a sing song laugh, one that Keiji missed hearing, and he made a mental note to thank Yuji for pulling his shy nestmate out of her slump. “Yams, I’m just bugging you. Don’t be so…” He trailed off as a sudden scent pushed into his waiting nostrils.

Slowly, he turned his head towards the undeniable source of the too-sweet fragrance and sucked in a breath of panic. Suga met his gaze, his deathly pale skin was flushed and his hazel eyes were swirling with a fog that Keiji knew all too well.

He shot up from the bench, cringing his nose at the onslaught of Suga’s abrupt onset of heat. “What the fuck did you- Are you kidding- Did you not take your suppressants?!” He barked, anger swirling inside his chest at his nestmate’s irresponsible behavior. If Suga’s scent hadn’t been so small and dejected, he would have been able to smell _some_ early signs of heat. “Do you know how much trouble we’re all in if you go into a state of-”

“I...I took them!” Suga panted in reply, keeling over onto his own lap on the bench. “I...swear...to you...Keiji. I took...them! I...don't know what's...happening.”

Keiji’s eyes narrowed, but he believed Suga’s admission. The silver boy was always concision and careful of his heat cycles, why would he suddenly forget his medication now?  _Fuck,_ he thought to himself as he met Yachi’s nervous gaze, _what the fuck were they going to do?_ His mouth set in a hard line and he raked his gaze over the expanse of the park-- praying that Suga’s intoxicating scent hadn’t caused any unwanted attention already. In mere milliseconds, he went through their very small list of options. He knew that they definitely needed to call for backup, but they needed to find somewhere safe to hole up, or they would be dead in the water before the help even had a chance to arrive. They couldn’t bring Suga back to the house without a vehicle, the sidewalks were littered with Alphas and there were no connecting alleyways for them to use to sneak by. They couldn’t very well stay there, in the middle of a modestly populated area.

_Where to go…_

His eyes darted over every single area of the park around them, searching for a secure place to find cover. They could go down to the beach and hope that they could remain out of the range of any unfamiliar and unmated Alphas-- _people seemed to stay off the beach so late in the fall season, right?_ He had nearly vocalized the idea when a group of Alpha joggers entered his line of sight, their runners flicking up chunks of sand in the ocean breeze.

 _Fuck,_ he thought again and grit his teeth, biting the edge of his tongue in the process. As he swallowed a mixture of spit and blood, he spun on his heels to look over the green expanse behind the bench. His eyes landed on a small, metal shed that housed the grounds keeping effects and he clenched a small fist at his side. He had already considered the shed as an option, but had decided that it was better as their last resort. The small building, if you could call it that, was closer to the more populated areas of the park than he would have liked. Plus, a pack of three Alphas were no more than ten meters away from it, tossing around a football on the grass. From where he and his nestmates were situated, the men were out of range of Suga’s scent, but he knew that it wouldn’t last long. The silver Omega’s heat was in its earliest stages and it would only grow more powerful with each passing second. They were between a rock and another rock-- they could risk their safety now by sprinting to the shed, or risk it later when Suga’s scent became conspicuous.  

“The maintenance shed…” Yamaguchi whispered through gritted teeth, dark eyes flickering between the metal structure, Keiji, and Suga.

“Best bet?” Keiji questioned in rushed tones as he hauled Suga’s limp body to a standing position. Suga fell into his embrace and he could feel the blistering heat radiating off the boy’s sweaty skin.

“Yes,” Yachi hissed, small frame visibly shaking with either adrenaline or fear. “I think so…”

Omega's might be weak when attacked in their own homes, in the places they felt most unguarded, but in the public world, Keiji knew that he and nestmates understood how to work together. They knew how to make quick, life depending decisions on a dime-- no matter how timid or nervous they were as a person.

“Here,” Keiji said as he gestured at Yamaguchi for assistance. “Help me get him on my back...a piggy back...yeah...lift him like that. Suga we’re going to get you somewhere safe, don’t worry about-”

“I’m...sorry,” Suga interrupted, lips close to Keiji’s left ear. The words rolled off his tongue with a lustful moan, but Keiji could hear the anger and self-castigation beneath the aroused tone. “Leave...me...just…leave...me.”

Keiji shrugged Suga further up his body and gripped beneath the boy’s knees to hold him in place. “Shut up, Suga. We’re not leaving you.”

“You...need...to-”

“I said shut up,” Keiji snapped again, then straightened to his full height. Both Yamaguchi and Yachi were visibly shaking and their scents were growing wild with anxiety. He needed to take control and set a plan in motion before it was too late-- they were lucky that they hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention already with such unhinged scents. “Go over there. Cautious and quiet. Make sure it’s open. If it is, go inside and be ready to lock the door the second, and I mean the exact _second,_ that I get over there with Suga. Got it? And make sure you rein in your scents a bit."

Yamaguchi nodded, his mouth set in a hard line. “If it’s not? If it’s locked?”

“Then you sprint your goddamn asses back to the house and get help,” Keiji hissed, now sweating from the heat of Suga’s body. “And I’ll figure something out.”

Yachi’s eyes widened and a fresh wave of shivers ran up her body. “There has to be-”

“No time. Go,” Keiji barked out in command, ignoring Suga’s quiet and continuous pleas to leave him behind.

They were a nest. They belonged together. They relied on each other. They would never leave one of their own behind, no matter the circumstances.


	51. Faulty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bewareeeeeeeeee of spelling mistakes.

**Chapter Fifty One: Faulty**

**Keiji~**

Keiji gingerly plopped Suga down on the dirt floor of the shed as Yamaguchi  fiddled with the heavy lock behind him. He inhaled in short waves to catch his breath from his sprint across the grassy park. The scent of fresh earth and heat filled his open nostrils as he helped Suga shrug out of his jean jacket. He wanted to alleviate some of the boy's discomfort. “Yachi, call Miyo. Then call Oikawa,” he barked without deviating from his task.

Next, he pulled off his own sweater and tucked it around Suga’s scent glands-- a futile attempt to stifle the intense fragrance with his own mild one. He could hear Yachi speaking into her phone in rushed, high-pitched tones of panic-- alerting Miyo to their rather dire circumstances.

“Yams, do you have your injector on you?” He asked over his shoulder, fighting with Suga’s frail hands to keep the boy from pulling off his cotton shirt. “Suga, no. You have to keep that on at least...stop it...it’ll help cover your scent a bit. I know it’s uncomfortable but you-”

A loud, jarring noise cut him short-- the sound off an Alpha pounding on the metal door of the shed. He and his nestmates froze in place and everything was silent for a moment before he stayed his quivering hands and did his best to ignore the threats outside. He could only hope that the door held up long enough for their help to arrive.

“Here...here,” Yamaguchi hissed, tapping him on the shoulder with the slender vial of a heat suppressant. “You think his was faulty?”

Keiji took the injector from Yamaguchi’s shaky hands and popped off the glass cover with his thumb. “I don’t know. Maybe. I can’t think of anything else that it could be,” he rattled off, then he pulled at the plastic cover with his teeth and spat it to the side. “Suga, hold still for a second, _please,_ just for a second, _”_ he said, all too aware that his tone was growing frenzied with each passing second. He needed to keep it together, if only for Yamaguchi and Yachi.

“Oikawa? Yes. We’re still at the park,” he heard Yachi squeak out from behind him as he jabbed at Suga’s trembling thigh with the vial. “Suga...he’s in heat…I don’t-” Yachi paused and he could hear Oikawa’s frantic voice raise on the other end of the line. “We need a car…yes we’ve called Miyo...she’s coming...”

Keiji spun around in his crouched down position and glanced up at Yachi’s tense face. “Tell him that he’s closer to us and we need help _now,”_ he barked out as another loud _bang_ rattled through the metal shed.

Yachi’s face considerably paled at the unsettling sound and her hand clenched harder around the device at her ear. “Keiji says--”

**Oikawa~**

“I heard what he said!” Oikawa yelled into the speaker of his phone as he paced around the nest room, gathering up supplies-- heat injectors, scent suppressors, anything he could think of that might help. “Tell Keiji to stab Suga with one of your injectors...his must be faulty or something!”

For a moment, he heard a jumble of different words on the other end of the line before Keiji’s voice rang clear. “You don’t think I’ve already done that, Shittykawa?! I stabbed Yamaguchi’s, but does it fucking matter? We need a ride out of here anyways!”

Oikawa dropped down to zip up his backpack in a hurry, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder. His stomach was churning at their unwanted situation-- angry that his nestmates were victims to yet another round of bad luck. “Of course it fucking matters!” He yelled into his device as he yanked open the nestroom door and hurried down the stairwell. “If it works, his heat will subside and you guys can-”

“We’ve got at least three feral Alphas on us now. Maybe more, I don’t know. So it doesn’t matter if the injector works, they’re not going anywhere.”

“Fucking fuck! Where are you...yes I know at the goddamn park! Where _exactly?”_ Oikawa asked through clenched teeth as he neared the front door. Behind him, he could smell his Alpha's panicked scent wafting in from the back yard.

Hajime clamored inside in a hurry-- scent coiling around in droves of aggression at his mate’s upset. “What the fuck is happening,” he commanded, pulling Oikawa to his feet with a heavy hand.

Oikawa ignored the question and pulled on his turquoise track jacket as Keiji’s voice buzzed on the end of the line. “Maintenance shed at-”

“That shotty metal one?” He interrupted, pushing away Hajime’s concerned hands once more. "That won't hold up-"

 _"Yes,_  I am well aware," Keiji asserted and Oikawa could hear the boy’s unusual anxiety beneath his snarky tone. “Come soon. I’m hanging up. We’re going to bar the door with whatever we can find. Call when you’re here.”

Before Oikawa could reply, the line went dead. He gripped the phone, wanting to throw it against the wall in frustration, then looked to Hajime. “Suga’s gone into heat at the park. I need to borrow your car,” he repeated as he dropped to his knees to tie the white laces of his converse.

Hajime’s scent swirled around with an onset of vengeful rage. Then, a familiar, pack-like scent suddenly poured off his tanned skin. “I’ll drive.”

“No,” Oikawa barked, rising back to full height. “Did you not hear what I just said? Suga is in heat, you can’t-”

“We’re mated. I won’t be affected,” Hajime replied, throat rumbling out with a hostile growl.

“No, but you’ll be affected by all of the feral Alpha scents!” Oikawa yelled back, gesturing wildly in the air with slender hands. “So you’re can't come!”

Hajime took a menacing step forward and crossed his broad arms over his chest. “I. Am. Coming.”

“No, you’re not!”

“You. Are. Not. Going. Without. Me.”

“Yes. I. Am. You're the liability this time! This is about Suga and my-”

“What the _fuck_ is going on?” Bokuto’s voice joined in. He walked out of the blue kitchen in long strides-- no doubt influenced by the tense scents in the main room. “Keiji’s with Suga. Where are they.”

Oikawa clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes as Yuji fell in step behind the owl boy. He wanted to lie, but he knew that the two Alphas had already heard he and Hajime’s argument. There was little point now. “Waterfront. They’re at waterfront inside-”

“Yachi. Is. There,” Yuji snarled and rushed forward to pull on a pair of shoes that Oikawa was certain were not his.

Oikawa moved towards the door to cover the exit. He couldn’t let the Alphas run wild in such a delicate situation. This wasn’t a case of Omega assault, this was an Omega in heat. It was a more dire circumstance and it required planning. He wasn’t about to let his housemates run wild and lose themselves in their instincts-- it would only put Suga in more danger.

Yuji stepped towards the door, his scent both menacing and challenging. “Move,” he growled out in a low tone that sent shivers up Oikawa’s spine.

“No,” Oikawa seethed back, straightening his back to physically assert himself. “You’re not rushing into this one. This is different. You can’t bash your way to victory here."

Bokuto stepped in beside Yuji, throat rumbling with strained dominance. “Move. Now.”

“No,” Oikawa said again, but couldn’t help his lithe body from shaking at the overbearing Alphas scents. “You. Listen. To. Me.”

Suddenly, Bokuto lurched forward to shove Oikawa out of the way. Hajime threw a heavy elbow into the owl’s face and he staggered off to the right.

Before Yuji even understood what had happened, Hajime shoved the boy to the side. Then, he stepped into a protective stance, shielding Oikawa. “If you  _ever_ try to touch my mate like that again,” he snarled in a hushed tone that immediatly silenced the other growls in the room. _“I’ll kill you.”_

Bokuto rose cautiously to his feet, yellow eyes fixed on Hajime. “Then don't get in the way of _my_ Omega,” he countered, but remained in place-- unwilling to test the lengths of Hajime’s patience.

“Okay, that’s enough,” a familiar voice chimed in, pulling Oikawa’s attention away from the tense situation.

The tone was lighthearted, but nonetheless commanding. His gaze flickered to the turquoise couch-- to Kuroo. He hadn’t even noticed that the rooster was there.

“Oikawa, Hajime is coming,” Kuroo growled as he rose up from the plush couch. “So whatever plan you have, include him, and me. And I’m texting Tsukishima, he has a right to know what’s happening with Yamaguchi.”

Oikawa’s mouth set in a hard line and he bit his cheek at the series of commands. “Fine. But Hajime’s _not_ coming if there are feral-”

“If you’re going to keep bickering about this, then can we _please_ take it outside,” Kuroo interrupted and gestured dramatically at the front door. “I am not going to have this entire _frustrating_ conversation with Kenma because you two are so damn loud about this petty shit! Get over it.”

Oikawa sucked in a breath, unhappy that the rooster wanted to keep his mate in the dark about the dangerous situation. “Kenma has every right to know if his mate-”

Kuroo cut him short with a threatening growl and Hajime’s figure tensed in front of him. “Can’t fight. Liability.”

Oikawa knew that he had touched a subject that Kuroo was not going to debate. He opened his mouth to retort, but closed it and sighed out some of his rampant anxiety. They needed to go, there was no more time to argue about insignificant things-- his nestmates were in danger.

_His nestmates were in danger and now his mate was going to be in danger, too._

“If you’re not mated, then you stay outside of the seven meter radius. I'm sure that they at least taught you that in _Alpha_ highschool,” he rattled off in a warning tone, drawing a circle in the air with his fingers. Then, his hazel eyes flickered between Yuji and Bokuto. “I don’t care if your _Omegas_ are in danger, if they’re near Suga, you stay the fuck away.”

Kuroo raised an eyebrow at the Alphas in question and they growled out agreements. “Hajime, go start the car,” he barked without moving his intense gaze. When Hajime remained still he added, “I’ve got Oikawa. It’s fine. We’re right behind you.”

Oikawa wanted to tell the rooster that he could handle himself, that he didn’t need an Alpha’s protection, but kept his mouth shut. The truth was, he _did_ need Alpha help right now. “Kuroo, when we get there, we can’t jump in right away until we have a better idea of what’s going on...” He quietly asserted and when Kuroo gave him a tough nod, he continued. “That means that you and Hajime are going to have to handle any Alphas that are in the immediate vicinity of the shed.”

“You hear that?” Kuroo barked to Yuji and Bokuto’s bristling figures. “Don’t fuck this up.”

**Hajime~**

Hajime and his group had barely made their way to the sidewalk in front of the park before the Omega professor arrived-- they hadn’t even had a chance to call Keiji back. Miyo pulled up to the side of the road in a flash of black and silver, smoking the edge of the curb directly behind his own vehicle with a hubcap. The engine halted and the far door of the small car flew open, rebounding back a few inches. The raven woman scrambled out of the cabin and snapped her stern gaze over Oikawa, then to the rest of the assembled Alphas. She blinked once before emerald eyes flickered further beyond them-- into the green expanse of the field.

“Where the fuck are they,” she barked as she closed the distance in large, confident strides. Before Hajime, or anyone really, had the chance to answer, she spoke again. “In that fucking shed over there?” She spat, jerking a finger to the silver box of a building, surrounded by a few unknown Alphas. “They're fucking back in there, aren't they.”

Hajime quickly moved out of the way, just in time before the woman could bowl right through him. Her scent was a ferocious, but it was strained by waves of hidden stress. He briefly pondered stopping her, but lost the chance when she quickly stepped past him and into the park. He found himself stunned in place, not by any sort of paralyzing scent, but by the woman's outright attitude. She was exhilarating to a stagnant degree-- absolutely terrifying in a _very_ prominant way.

“Hey, what the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?” Miyo called out to a blonde Alpha who was bashing a large foot into the side of the shed.

When the man failed to acknowledge her presence, she lunged forward and flipped the feral boy around to face her. Then, she said something under her breath-- so low that Hajime couldn't hear a single word of it. However, he _did_ hear the Alpha whimper in response and he _did_ watch the frightened boy scramble away to the left of the shed. Whatever hostile words the raven women had shared, he did not want to know. It wasn’t exactly _easy_ to verbally pull a feral Alpha out of a heat-influenced stupor.

“Oi, you mated boys!” Miyo called over to the stunned group-- emerald eyes darting between he and Kuroo. “Get over here and guard the left side while-”

Suddenly, a lean and muscular body appeared from behind the shed, flying into Miyo’s astonished figure in a flash of movement. Hajime heard the crunch before he saw the impact, and the raven Omega keeled down to the ground with a shy whimper. The attacking Alpha ignored her and mobed to the side of her-- unceremoniously yanking at the metal door of then shed. 

This time, Hajime found his feet. He lurched forward, tossed the feral Alpha up in the air with the top of his shoulder, and threw him to the hard earth. The man coughed out at the impact and writhed around in the grass, gasping for air. Momentarily satisfied, Hajime turned on his heels to help the injured professor.

Only, she was already on steady feet. Her delicate hands were latched on her gushing nose and her eyes were narrow with the kind of fury that sent shivers up from Hajime's spine. He quickly shook it off and moved to check over the slender woman, but she eluded his grasp with professional ease-- as if she didn't even notice that he was there at all. He watched on with wide eyes as she stepped forward and kicked a heavy foot into the feral Alpha’s exposed chin. The man slammed back down on his side and groaned in pain, clawing at his now disjointed jaw with renewed whimpers.

“You little _punk!” She_  boomed down at the injured boy-- her tone nasally and thick from gurgling blood. “You broke my fucking nose! What the fuck is wrong with you? Shit...fuck...for christ’s sakes...my fucking nose...goddammit.”

 _Holy fuck,_ Haiime cringed as he raked his gaze down to the man, _that kick looked wicked heavy. Much too heavy to come from a woman that weighed so fucking little._

Across the field, he heard Kuroo bark a few orders at Bokuto and Yuji and the two unmated housemates widened their positions to defend the seven meter perimeter of the shed. For now, they were behaving, but Hajime wasn’t sure how long that would last for. Then, Kuroo jogged forward, growling under his breath as two interested Alphas began staking out the metal structure from the right.

Hajime’s eyes quickly darted over the vicinity, counting the enemies on hand. He had to work hard to smell around Suga’s heated fragrance, but he was certain that there were two Alphas on the far side of the shed-- too interested in the prize within to care about his group’s presence. On his right, there were two new Alphas, scouting out the place with devilish eyes, and on his left, he spotted three interested parties that Yuji was holding in his line of sight.  

Next to him, Kuroo grumbled under his breath and ran a nervous hand through his black locks. “You know,” the rooster said, taking a subconscious step in front of Miyo to protect her. “Now would be a good time to flaunt your terrifying scent, professor.”

“Oh _please_ , Kuroo,” Miyo replied with a dismissive wave of her wrist. “We've been through enough together to drop the formalities. Call me Miyo.”

Hajime would have fallen over in a laugh if the situation wasn't so tense. The raven women was as poised as a bourgeois, but swore like a pirate-- and fought like one, too.

Miyo coughed slightly and spat a thick ball of crimson spit into the grass at her feet. “And unfortunately, my dear, my scent doesn't seem to work like that,” she asserted with a bloody smile that churned Hajime’s instincts-- she was a part of his pack and he didn’t like her injuries in the slightest.

Kuroo chuckled before unleashing a hearty growl at one of the stalking Alphas on his right. “Okay. Soooo, how _does_ it work, then?”

Miyo rolled her eyes around in their sockets, trying to cope with a sudden rush of pain from her damaged nose. Then, the shook her head and shrugged apologetically. “Honestly, I haven't the foggiest.”

Hajime couldn't help but grin at their ridiculous mess of circumstances, and at the professor’s frilly choice of language. The women bounced between old English phrases and curse words on the flip of a dime. “Well,” he offered with a quiet sigh. “At least you and Oikawa still have those delicate fists to fight with. You'd better put them to good use because we're kind of screwed right now~~”

“I’m sorry, but did you…” Miyo started, but trailed off to cock a manicured eyebrow in Oikawa's direction. “Did _your_ mate just call my fists _delicate?”_

“I mean, I would've said _dainty_ , but whatever,” Kuroo chimed in with a sly chuckle and Miyo smacked him across the back of the head.

“We're not _that_ familiar yet, rooster boy,” she remarked, but her lips were curved in her own, humorous smirk. Kuroo laughed again and held out his hands as the raven woman prodded at his side.

Oikawa grinned at the affair, then flicked Hajime in the side of the temple. “You trying to provoke us into fighting, _lover?_ Are you sure that’s wise? We're such weak little Omegas~~”

“Oh, _please._ We both know that you're going to do it anyways,” Hajime said with a snort. “I might as well get some humor out of it.”

It was all talk. He was actually truly terrified of Oikawa fighting-- or of Miyo fighting, for that matter. _Ukai would rip out his entrails if anything happened to-_

  
_Well, shit_ . Something _had_ already happened. _Her goddamn nose was already broken. He was so, so dead...if they made it out of this alive._


	52. Pawns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY!!!!!!
> 
> I know this was the LONGEST UPDATE ABSENCE EVER. The holiday season is a tough time for my family and I, but it's over now!
> 
> Housekeeping Items: 
> 
> -I wanted to update this chapter to get y'all some info.  
> -I'm trying to work on longer chapter updates from now on, so it's not just 4000K words here and there. I'd like to post 3-4 chapters for the next little bit while we finish up this story.  
> -The next chapter updates WILL NOT take a month, I promise!
> 
> Thanks so much for sticking with me after I pulled a fast one on you guys and was gone for a month <3
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> Housekeeping items for me (ignore this guys, it's boring edit stuff that I need to remember):  
> -fix minor continuity issues with dates/purring/injuries  
> -heavy edit chapters from limitless omega to the second party arc  
> -clean edit all chapters  
> -clean dialogue in virgin, yellow flowers, pawns, conflict of being/that preachy chapter  
> -fix continuity error with omega nest door

**Chapter Fifty Two: Pawns**

**Yuji~**

Frantic couldn’t even begin to describe the turbulent emotions that Yuji was experiencing-- it was something closer to sheer terror. He wanted nothing more than to bash down the door of the metal shed and pull Yachi, _his_ Omega, to safety. To run away somewhere far away and shield her from the world, but reality was making things far more complicated. In his heart, he knew that the best course of action for Yachi, was to prioritize the group’s protection first. To prioritize Suga.

He was more than seven meters away from the silver Omega, the source of the intoxicating scent that was swirling around in the open air, yet he was still struggling to keep his Alpha instincts in check. They wanted to stake their claim Suga, even if his conscious mind wanted the complete opposite. He was being torn between the multiple desires-- between his human nature, his instincts, and his need to _protect the pack._ He was going to do everything in his power to make sure the correct ones were victorious.

He hazarded a glance over his shoulder to ensure that Bokuto was covering the right side of the shed opposite him. The owl was facing down three prowling female Alphas, but he couldn’t spare his packmate any help-- he had his own problems to deal with. He jerked his gaze back to the two Alphas ahead of him and furrowed his brows. He had seen their distorted body language before. It was animalistic, with much of their humanity lost to their heat-induced feral nature. The first of the two, a female, was crouched down on the dry grass and her unblinking eyes were darting between him and the shed. He knew that her instincts were cognizant of his defensive stance, trying to ascertain whether he was enough of a threat to warrant her attention. He was going to make damn sure that he was.

“Stay. Back,” he growled out in warning, then snapped his brown eyes to the male Alpha a few paces behind her. The man seemed to be significantly less feral, however, he was still clearly influenced by Suga’s overbearing scent. “The Omega is already claimed. Go. Home.”

The male Alpha took a domineering step forward and smirked, ignoring the lurking female at his side. “Oh? Where is his Alpha, then? It certainly isn’t you. I doubt a _beta_ like yourself will ever claim a mate.”

Yuji nearly scoffed at the open insult on his Alpha dominance, but shoved the sudden desire away with force. _So,_ he thought as he grit his teeth together, _the fucker still has enough control over his instincts to think and speak clearly._ The very idea of it churned his gut-- that an Alpha was _consciously_ interested in an Omega that had accidentally fallen into heat. If he had been a half-decent man, he would have tried to keep other Alphas away from the shed-- or at the very least, he should have left the park altogether at the first scent of Suga’s heat.

“He’s claimed. Fuck off,” Yuji snarled and subconsciously unleashed his Alpha scent in its fullest form. He was growing more irritated with each passing second the unwelcome man remained in his presence. His sly quips on Yuji's instinctual dominance were not helping. “Leave. Now.”

 _"He?”_ The male Alpha sneered back, then shrugged his broad shoulders with a heavy sigh. “That’s a shame, really. I prefer females.”

Yuji’s mind nearly snapped in two at the passing remark. It was audacious-- speaking about Omegas as if they were objects to be used and discarded. Suga had accidentally fallen into heat, he was vulnerable in the purest sense. This was about bonding for life, not some simple  _Alpha-Omega_ lay. How could the male Alpha be so blase about the situation? “Then fucking get out of here,” he snarled back, baring his teeth with fury as drops of feral spit dribbled down to his chin. “You’re not wanted here, anyways.”

The Alpha wriggled his fat nose, then licked his lips before laughing again. “Are you smelling the same shit that I am? Or are you too much of a beta to pick up on it?” He retorted with another wry smirk that churned Yuji’s insides. Then, he heartily sniffed the air and his dark eyes rolled back in their sockets. “How can you not want to fuck the source of that deliciousness. Male or female. Who cares. I want it.”

“You’re...disgusting,” Yuji growled and rolled his shoulders to loosen his muscles. He could ascertain very little by way of scent, aside from Suga’s heat. Even in the open park, the various other fragrances assaulted his senses to a nauseating degree. Even if, by some miracle, he had a more dominant scent than his two opponents, it wouldn’t even matter. They wouldn’t be able to smell it anyways. “You don’t deserve to have an Omega.”

The male Alpha cackled loudly, then met Yuji’s piercing gaze. “Oh, because you’re _so_ evolved. Don’t fucking kid yourself. You’re just as much of an Alpha as I am. We have needs, _special_ needs, that can only be sated by one thing. It’s the circle of life.”

This time, Yuji laughed. He couldn’t help it, the man had things so twisted up inside his own thick skull. “Fuck right off with that nonsense,” he snarled, then moved a few paces to the right to get a better angle on his two opponents. The female Alpha had stayed silent thus far, but her blue eyes had remained fixed on him throughout the entire conversation-- waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. He was surprised that she hadn’t already.

He was all too aware of the dire circumstances. This wasn’t a regular Alpha brawl. If he wasn’t careful, there was no doubt in his mind that things would turn into a bloodbath. Nothing, not a broken arm or a plethora of fractured ribs, would stop a rampaging Alpha from trying to claim an Omega in heat-- and Yachi would be collateral damage. If his pack was going to successfully defend the shed, one-on-one matchups would be more favourable for them.

Yet, here he was with two opponents. Two opponents that he knew absolutely nothing about. He didn’t know their strengths that he needed to avoid, nor any weakness’ that he could exploit. He couldn’t even smell if they were in the same pack. If they were, that would spell even more trouble for his already precarious situation-- they would be more likely to work together against him. They could always sort out who got to lay claim to Suga _after_ they had blown right through him.

He bit his lip and felt the muscles in his back ripple with renewed tension. He _could_ allow one of the Alphas to slip past him, but Hajime, Kuroo, and Oikawa already had their own opponents to deal with. They were relying on him to keep their left side clear, so he was just going to have to do his best to make that happen.

He blinked slowly, momentarily lost in thought, and shuffled from one foot to another on the dry grass. The only way he was going to be able to keep both opponents away from Suga and the inner defenders, was to knock one of them out cold. It was his best chance at victory. Glancing between the two Alphas, he decided that the female was his best bet. She was already completely feral-- a much larger liability than the mouthy male. The plan suited him fine, he was really looked forward to knocking the male Alpha down a few pegs in a more extended brawl.

With his decision made, he knew that he had no more time to waste. He had to be quick in his actions. In a split second, he launched towards the crouching female and reached for the collar of her white shirt. As he gripped into the soft fabric, her body jerked towards him and she quickly threw out a low kick to take out his legs. The pair of them fell to the hard earth in a mess of snarls before Yuji was able to flip his weight and pin the woman beneath him. She clawed at his yellow shirt, stretching the cloth with her nails as he forcefully pushed his hands around her tense neck. As he held off her air supply, he felt silent roars vibrate through the woman’s crushed windpipe and up through his strained hands. She managed to get a few heavy punches to his ribs from the side, ones that he was certain broke a few of his bones, before her movements grew sloppy and weak.

He knew that he needed to release her neck at _just_ the right time-- he didn’t want to kill her, just put her out of commission for a while. He had choked out many Alphas in his day and, by this point, he was very confident in the craft. With his own dominant scent as soft as it was, open brawling with sheer strikes almost always led to his defeat. Beating a dominant Alpha like Chaki in an outright brawl had been a fluke, he had been lucky that the disgusting man had been distracted by Yachi. He had learned very early on that he had a higher chance of victory if he used grappling techniques-- ones that utilized his opponent’s aggression and dominance against them. His female opponent was smaller, her muscles weaker than his own, so he knew that he could use his own weight against her to subdue her.

It was not long before he felt the woman’s neck begin to relax under his fingers, and he slowly released his grip. Her body grew limp beneath his own and her head lolled to the side. He exhaled to release some of his pent-up apprehension when the familiar, charming voice chimed in once more.

“Wow, you _really_ know how to treat a lady.”

Yuji grimaced at the coy words, but was nonetheless relieved by the unexpected chirp. He had thought that the male Alpha would have taken advantage of his distraction to high-tail it towards Suga and the trapped Omegas in the maintenance shed. It was now obvious to him that the man was an adrenaline junkie-- an Alpha who craved high stakes brawls above everything else. He was certainly in the right place-- an Omega in heat would definitely up the ante and cause a lot of unnecessary blood shed...maybe even death.

Through narrowed lids, Yuji glanced up at his snarky opponent and used a finger to blindly check for the female Alpha’s pulse-- faint, but still alive. _Good._

“You know,” the male Alpha continued and stretched his hands towards the rich, orange sky. “You and your irresponsible Omega friend over there have _really_ ruined my evening. I mean, just look at what you’ve done to my date.”

Yuji snorted, then hoisted himself up to unsteady feet. His right ribs were pounding, but he ignored them. “I’m sure your _date_ will make a speedy recovery. You really want to be next? You can still walk away, you know.”

The man paused for a moment, as if he was considering the idea, then shook his dark head. “Well, now that you’ve choked out the person I was going to fuck tonight, I’m going to need to find an alternative. And lo and behold! Some higher power saw fit to drop that sweet smelling Omega right in my lap.”

If Yuji didn’t want to claw out the man’s brain before, he certainly did now. He understood that Alphas, himself included, were slaves to their instincts in certain situations, but they could still fight back against them. The Alpha standing before him was a representation of everything he had grown to hate in the past few months. The man was willing, almost _eager,_ to allow his feral nature to guide his actions. He had not completely lost himself to Suga’s heated scent, yet he had made a conscious decision to remain.

Yuji didn’t want the man anywhere near Yachi, or any of the Omegas in his pack, for that matter. He would die before he allowed that to happen.

For a moment, he imagined killing the disgusting man, but the happy mental image was cut short when he noticed two more approaching Alphas from the far treeline. _Fucking fuck,_ he thought and shoved down a sudden rise of panic in his gut, _things were going to get out of control._

_He and his housemates had been the ones called in as backup...and now the backup needed backup._

**Ukai~**

 Ukai was seated on an uncomfortable, yet beautifully carved, chestnut bench outside the Disciplinary Committee Office. The hearing, which was much closer to a informal meeting _,_ was less than ten minutes away, and he was nervous. His stomach was uneasy-- he knew the odds were stacked against him and the innocent Omega nest. As he flipped through the loose leaf pages of his case against Chaki and his Alpha residence, his mind subconsciously flickered to Miyo. She had offered to accompany him to the meeting, but they had mutually decided that the Committee would be more apt to listen to an Alpha professor-- not an Omega. The very idea of it churned his gut. He had already made peace with the fact that his raven mate was much more clever and quick-witted than he was. Not only did she have every right to attend the hearing, but he knew that the case would be stronger if the Committee were to actually take the time to listen to what she had to say. Instead, he was forced to shoulder the entire case on his own and he was worried that he was going to let everyone down.

He groaned under his breath and closed his eyes, internally going over his arguments for the case once more. A few minutes later, a deep voice filled his open ears with its level, almost lifeless tones.

“Professor Ukai? They’re ready for you now. If you would follow me please, sir.”

Ukai’s brown eyes popped open and he nodded at the male Alpha standing before him. “Fantastic.”

He rose up from the bench, inwardly sighing at his aching body-- _christ, he was getting old._ Then, he followed the slow-moving Alpha towards an ornate looking door at the end of a long and empty hallway. They were nearly halfway there when an unfamiliar feeling surged through his veins. His dress shoes, ones that he rarely wore, squeaked against the well-waxed floor as he stalled in place.

The Alpha attendant ahead of him slowly turned around and flashed him with a perplexed look. “Professor…? Is everything okay, sir?” He asked as his eyes darted around the empty hall-- searching for the source of Ukai’s sudden agitation.

_No, everything was not okay..._

Ukai’s wide eyes jerked around in their sockets and he clutched at the papers in his hand, crumpling them with his heavy grip.

_Something was wrong…_

His chest constricted and his breathing grew shallow, echoing down the otherwise quiet hallway. Something deep inside of him felt...off. He had heard tellings of it from a few of his mated Alpha friends-- about the internal connection that would pulse inside their skulls when their mates were in danger. Now, he was experiencing it first-hand. He could feel Miyo’s apprehension and pain in the marrow of his bones. It was under his clammy skin, behind his eyes, and inside his now-throbbing skull. The deep seated ache that he had never before felt, almost like a heavy-handed panic attack, only, he knew _exactly_ where the sudden surge of anxiety was coming from.

Miyo. His mate had been injured, physically injured. _Somehow,_ he knew that it wasn’t from some clumsy action, like stubbing a toe. Someone had attacked her, and he was going to slaughter the fucker who did it.

“I. Have. To. Go,” he suddenly growled out at the stunned attendant, much louder than he had expected to, and turned on his heels.

_OUR MATE. OUR MATE IS WOUNDED._

His instincts began roaring inside his skull and slicing at his logical thoughts.

_He needed to find her. He needed to find her, now._

“But sir...the meeting can’t be resche...”

Ukai didn’t even hear the attendant’s final words-- he had already pushed through the back doors and jogged through the waiting room. In that moment, nothing else mattered to him. His mind was filled with tragic and terrifying images of Miyo. Worst case scenario images that he wished he could shut away forever.

_He needed to get to his mate._

**Daichi~**

Daichi was surprised when he had woken up to a morning text from Shoyo, inviting him to practice volleyball in a rented-out gym that afternoon. He had expected more of the yellow house members to be in attendance, particularly his Alpha teammates. Instead, he found himself in a large, echoing gym with the ginger Omega and the sullen setter, Tobio. While he was still perturbed by Shoyo’s invitation, he was grateful that one of the nestmates still considered him a friend-- even after everything that had happened with Suga. Plus, he couldn't deny that he was happy to have an excuse to get out of Ukai’s house. His coach had been lost in the _lovey dovey_ world of a newly mated man. He wouldn’t shut up about Miyo-- it made Daichi want to vomit.

The first half hour in the well-lit gym was slightly awkward, but it wasn’t due to he household drama from his recent breakup. Instead, the source was the strange, argumentative relationship between Shoyo and Tobio. Both boys maintained a near constant state of irritation with each other, but there was also an unspoken affection underneath the facade that Daichi was quick to pick up on.

The idea of Shoyo and Tobio falling in love in their own, bizarre way hurt his tender heart. A part of him, somewhere deep inside, hoped that the two housemates would fall out of love in some painful way, but he was quick to squash the feeling down. He knew that he didn’t want to wish ill will upon the other Alpha-Omega pairs in the yellow house, but he couldn’t help but feel even more alone in their presence.

He missed Suga. He wasn’t sure that the feeling, or even the idea of the silver Omega as his mate, would ever go away-- a notion that was truly terrifying for him to come to terms with.

About half way through their practice session, very close to to the one house mark, a strange feeling began to stir inside his gut. At first, he ignored it-- brushing it off as the usual heartache from Suga that he was all too familiar with. As he continued to demonstrate receives for Shoyo, he felt his instincts begin to coil around the deep-seated emotion, pulsing and quivering with new agitation. Both his instincts, and the the strange feeling they were attaching themselves to, were still muted-- he had worked very hard over the last week to dull every emotion he had. However, his observing self could tell that his feral nature was growing more and more frantic with each passing moment. It was as if it were trying to tell him something important, but he had no idea what exactly it could be.

After demonstrating one final receive off of Tobio’s wicked jump serve, he excused himself for a moment under the guise of grabbing water. In reality, he had grown extremely unsettled. He felt like he had an infuriating itch that he couldn’t scratch. Or rather, he couldn’t even find the location of the itch _to_ scratch in the first place.

Grabbing for his large, navy-coloured water bottle, he absentmindedly squirted some of the cool liquid into his mouth. As he swished it between his teeth, he reached a large hand to wipe the excess sweat from his face and was shocked to find that his skin was searing hot to the touch-- much too warm to be from physical activity alone.

“Daichi!” Shoyo called from somewhere far away, luring Daichi’s attention with sharp, high pitched tones. “Are you okay? You look like you’re overheating…”

“Yeah…” Daichi replied in a distant tone. The world around him was suddenly blurring out of focus. The only remaining thought in his mind was fixated on the strange feeling, surging through his burning veins. His muted instincts were clawing at his brain and his overheating skin was spreading across every inch of his body. “I think...I think I’m going to go and splash some...some water on my face. I’ll be right back.”

Before he had the chance to hear a reply from either Tobio or Shoyo, he had already dragged his heavy feet towards the men’s locker room. He kept his poise until he had pushed through the wooden door, then he stumbled across the square tile towards the lines of sinks near the far side of the room. For a moment, he held himself up with two hands on the grimy, plastic counter and tried to gather his senses. He was losing the ironclad grip on his feelings, and he was frightened. He had worked _very_ hard to keep them away, far away, for good reason. His fragile heart couldn't take the upset, so he would turn to to rage. He didn't want that.

His body felt like it was being stabbed from every angle with fleeting emotions and thoughts-- gone too quickly for him to analyze properly. All he knew was that he was hot, overwhelmingly so. His dark eyes felt unfocused and dry. His stomach was churning, threatening to spill up its meager contents of water and toast. He reached down with shaky hands, turned the squeaky tap and splashed some cool water onto his face.

As the liquid drenched his burning skin, the last vestiges of his control snapped and his instincts began to slowly seep out with avengence. His mind was thrown through a slow loop of mental images of Suga and his aching heart suffocated inside his chest. He had no idea what his roaring instincts wanted him to do, but he needed his bodily sickness to stop. Glancing up at the mirror in front of him, he grimaced at how hollow and sunken his face and eyes had become over the last week. Then, he sighed and closed his eyes-- relinquishing his conscious mind to the will on his feral nature.

He knew that the roaring in his brain, his churning gut, and his unbearably hot skin would only go away if his instincts got what they wanted-- _whatever the fuck that was._ He was too emotionally tired to fight back any longer.

Whatever they wanted, wherever it was that they wanted to take him, he was going to allow it. This time.

 

 


	53. Chemical Reactions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> Different kind of format with Tsukishima, hopefully it isn't too jarring for y'all to read. He's easier to write with thoughts instead of actions, otherwise it's just:
> 
> Tsukishima sighed. Tsukishima was irritated. Tsukishima rolled his eyes. Over and over and overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's his trope.
> 
> As always, thanks so MUCH for commenting. Seriously, I always go back and read them more than once to keep me motivated :)
> 
> Cheers <3
> 
> (Edit #1 complete)

**Chapter Fifty Three: Chemical Reactions**

**Tsukishima~**

The library was much too busy for Tsukishima's tastes. Late Friday afternoons were ordinarily quiet, but he had forgotten to account for the upcoming season of final exams. Luckily, he had managed to snag a long oak table near a high wall of bay windows-- he always studied better with lots of natural light. Much to his dismay, he didn't have the table to himself, but the young Alpha seated across the table was quiet and focused on his own notes. That was good enough for him.

He was nearly half way through his third chapter of Organic Chemistry when he heard his phone _ding_ through his cordless headphones, briefly silencing his tranquil music. He ignored the message with ease and continued his work, tapping his blue pen on the wooden table in intense thought. Less than a minute later, his device buzzed again-- and then again...and again. He wasn’t sure if it was curiosity or annoyance that got the best of him, but he reached out to the left, feeling for his phone without looking. When his fingers landed on the familiar metal, he pushed the device across the table with a forefinger and glanced down at it.

_(4) Message from: Annoying Rooster_

_What did Kuroo want this time?_ He stared blankly at the screen, debating whether or not to take the Rooster's bait. Kuroo only ever messaged him for one of three reasons-- to chirp him with a shitty meme, to remind him of an _optional_ team building event, or to beg for the answers to their homework. Tsukishima didn't feel like entertaining any of those things today, he had work to do. Slowly, he pushed the phone back to the side, but stopped when he heard it _ding_ once again. He quietly cursed under his breath, then accidentally caught the challenging eyes of his silent table partner:

_If you're not going to get that, then take your damn phone off vibrate._

Slightly embarrassed, but more irritated than anything, Tsukishima snatched the phone up to view the messages in full-- narrowing his eyes at the Alpha across from him as he did so.

_(4:47pm) Yo, crisis at Waterfront. Suga went into heat._

_(4:47pm) I don't know how so don't ask me._

_(4:48pm) Could use the backup of you're not busy, I don’t know what the fucks gonna happen or what we're walking into._

_(4:50pm) Okay yeah...I'll just assume you're busy. But if you get this then we'll be at the maintenance shed, the one near that weird red bench._

Tsukishima let out an audible sigh, one that was still quiet enough to keep to himself, then stared down at the lit screen with pursed lips. He hated the peer pressure he had been at near-constant odds with since the nest had moved into his residence. He had _no_ desire to get involved in the dangerous affairs of his housemates, but he always seemed to be dragged into them anyways. Admittedly, he had felt the bizarre _pack instinct_ on more than one occasion, and he had fully chosen to ignore it to the best of his abilities. He had zero ambition to be a part of an Alpha pack, but being a member of the University volleyball team had really shot that horse in the face. There was no way he was going to willingly join a strange, hybrid pack that included Omegas as well. Suga wasn't his problem. In fact, from his perspective, Suga wasn't any of his teammates’ problem either. Especially now that Daichi was out of the picture.

He sighed again to release the sudden pressure inside his chest, then flipped back to his music when his phone buzzed again. He rolled his eyes and adjusted his glasses before looking back done at his annoyingly chatty device.

_(4:51pm) Yamaguchi is with Suga btw. Dunno if you care but I figured you'd want to know._

He read over the newest message four times before its significance finally registered in his brain. His feral nature, however, got the message right away and the tension inside of his chest increased tenfold. He did, in his own warped way, consider the Yamaguchi as a friend. A good friend, even, but his instincts had been known to skew his conscious feelings for the freckled boy from time to time. Just like they were suddenly doing now.

He hated it.

He didn't want his body to feel _any_ measure of attraction towards another person-- family, lover, or otherwise. And he certainly didn’t want to have a mate, not ever. He didn't want a life partner. He didn’t want to have children. He was an academic-- a man who wanted to excel in the field of science and create new life inside of test tubes, not inside of an Omega. For that reason alone, he had distanced himself from Yamaguchi since the events with Chaki and Kabuto. _Well, as much as humanly possible for him to do so._ As always, reality was much more difficult than his plans on paper. There was something about Yamaguchi that always seemed to draw him in. Perhaps, it was the Omega's mild, tropical scent, or maybe it was his ability to provide a quiet companionship that Tsukishima found rather amicable. Regardless, Tsukishima was fully frustrated with his instincts’ fascination of Yamaguchi, and by extension, frustrated with the entire nest itself. _It was fine when they were distracting the other Alpha members in his household, but distracting him?_ That was where he drew the line.

With that thought in mind, he clicked off his phone and put it back in its non-distracting place, off to the side of the long table. Then, he forcibly shoved all of his frantic thoughts on Yamaguchi to the back of his mind and got back to his studies with renewed vigor. With a lot of vigor-- with the vigor of someone trying to distract themselves from their true feelings. Across from him, his table partner hummed out in frustration and met his steely gaze once more:

_For fucks sakes, would you stop pushing out that annoying scent? I'm fucking studying here. Deal with it, or leave._

Tsukishima sucked in a silent breath at the silent accusation, but kept his ever present poise under wraps.

_He wasn't giving off a strained scent...was he? He wasn't stressed in the slightest! Yes, Yamaguchi was somewhat fragile, but the kid was smart enough to handle himself._

He began to tap his pen against the table, pretending to ponder the complex chemistry problem before him-- trying to trick himself into believing that everything would work itself out.

_Yamaguchi will be fine...where was Suga in heat again? At the park? Wait...what time was it?_

He glanced over to his phone, _4:55pm._

_See...it’s late. There probably wouldn’t be a lot of people at the park on a Friday evening anyways. They’ll figure out how to get Suga back home to safety. Omegas were smart about this kind of stuff. They’ll all be okay._

His hazel eyes darted up to the irritated Alpha seated across from him as if to say, _see, I'm fine._ Then, he dropped his gaze back down at his well organized notes.

_Kuroo was going to be there. Who else? Asahi is out of town with Nishinoya and Tanaka has evening tutoring...but everyone else was around.  There’s no need for me to get involved. I’m all the way across campus. Kuroo will  definitely bring backup and that will keep Yamaguchi and the others safe. It would be illogical to get involved. They probably won’t even be there by the time I could get there anyways._

As his absent-minded thoughts strung together, he felt something inside his mind begin to snap. His guarded instincts slithered out of their carefully monitored cage and an uncomfortable heat began to spread throughout his body-- coating his skin with a sticky sweat. He shuddered, banging his back against his oak chair as his instincts began to scratch at the back of his retinas. They were throwing a tantrum against his logical mind-- just as they had a few weeks back when their yellow house was attacked. _No,_ he commanded internally, _no, we are not doing this again._ He mentally pushed back against them, humming under his breath to the calming song playing through his red headphones. Then, he repeated an internal mantra, one that asserted that Yamaguchi’s safety was none to his concern.

Five minutes later, he was shaken back to reality, stopping his body halfway down the front steps of the brick library building. He was nearly blown back in disbelief, but quickly regained his poise once more. _Really?_ _How the fuck did he end up outside? When the fuck did he lose control over his instincts?_ Ordinarily, he could put a finger on the _exact_ moment he lost against his feral nature, but this time, he had just blacked right out. It was more than a little disconcerting for him.

“What the _fuck…”_ He whispered under his breath, growing immensely worried over his lack of conscious control. After a few minutes, frozen in intense thought, he noticed that his instincts had the foresight to grab his backpack. _Oh how ironic,_ he sarcastically mused to himself with an eye roll. Then, he shimmied his bag down from his shoulder and unzipped it to reveal its contents. His perfectly done notes were shoved inside, crumpled up in a ruined mess alongside his expensive pens. _“Really?_ Ruining my goddamn notes...how disrespectful,” he muttered again as he aggressively zipped up the main pocket of the bag.

After adjusting the backpack over his shoulders once more, he worked his black frames over his nose and let out a deep sigh of irritation. He wanted to march right back up the library steps and show his feral nature who was boss, but the intelligent side of him knew that it would be futile. They were already a swirling mess of challenging anger  _and_ they were clearly in some sort of open rebellion-- threatening to take over his bodily control again if he refused to acknowledge their demands.

He knew that they wanted to find Yamaguchi, no, they _needed_ to find the kid. They _needed_ to fight for the safety of their hybrid-esque pack-- the pack that he wanted nothing to do with in the first place. _Had he not made that notion clear enough to them? Did he seriously have no say in the matter anymore?_

_Fuck, he absolutely hated being an Alpha._ He wished that he had be born an Omega. They, at the very least, weren’t slaves to their overzealous instincts anymore. There were chemical ways to control their animalistic inhibitions-- the same couldn’t be said for Alphas.

Raking his gaze over the sporadic crowds of students, his hazel eyes were drawn to a red bicycle a few feet away. Its owner hadn’t even bothered to chain it up to the steel racks near the entrance of the library. Whoever owned the damn thing, they would likely be returning soon. That, or they were an idiot who _wanted_ their bike to be stolen out from under them.

He huffed out a but of air at his overeager instincts and their internal demands, then pushed his conscious mind out to them-- _are we really going to steal a bike? You’re really going to make me do this?_ Their reply was heavy inside of his chest, demanding and extremely persistent with their message-- _yes. Get to Waterfront. Get there now. Our Omega. Danger. He is ours._

Tsukishima ground his teeth together and fought back against his desire to roll his eyes again-- openly scoffing at his mutinous feral nature. Then, he conceded. He casually walked up to the bicycle, acting as if it was his in the first place, swung his leg over the metal, and took off without a second thought.

As he biked across campus towards the ocean, he let his emotions stew around in his mind. He was absolutely infuriated with his instincts for forcing him into obeying their stupid desires. He was even more angry with himself for being weak against them-- for allowing them to have their way with him so easily. He was annoyed with Kuroo for involving him with the problem in the first place and he was exasperated with the nest for pulling him into the constant stream of terrible situations. But, underneath every petulant thought there remained a deep seated fear. An ever-present anxiety for Yamaguchi’s safety. In fact, he was unamused to find himself growing more and more concerned for _everyone’s_ safety-- even for Suga and the other Omegas.

He shook his head to reassert his fractured mind as he biked through the residence district. Today, he would help. Tomorrow, he would distance himself again. That was his creed.

**Bokuto~**

Bokuto was stuck facing down three Alphas to the right side of the shed. The three females were much were closer to harpies in the way that they attacked at him. They were chaotic and wild in their strikes, but crafty as well. They were wise enough to rotate their ranks when one of them became too injured or tired to continue against him. He always hated fighting against female Alphas. They were always more intelligent in their fighting-- aware of their generally smaller stature as women and better able to utilize it to their benefit. In fact, he always considered them to be tougher opponents than male Alphas. Male Alphas were more mindless and brawny. _Fuck,_ he mused with a dramatic eye roll, _why couldn’t he be facing three of them instead?_

He darted his yellow eyes over his colorful opponents-- their pastel hair colours reminded him of sailor moon characters. These women might not be sweet, magical saviors, but their minds were definitely on another planet. None of them retained a single shred of humanity. They were all lost to heat-induced instincts.

Bokuto had landed more than his fair share of hits, but none of them had managed to permanently subdue any of his artful opponents. Luckily for him, he had proven himself as a worthy adversary-- none of the women had tried to skip past him to get to the shed. They, at the very least, viewed him as an obstacle that needed to be overcome first. For that, he was extremely relieved. He was already dancing along the seven meter radius around the shed. A few steps backwards, and he would want to fuck Suga just as much as his opponents did. If they blew past him, he wouldn't be able to chase them down.

Rolling his neck on its axis, he grimaced at his swollen fingers. They had only just healed and he was absolutely certain that many of them were broken again. Just in time for fall volleyball season. _Fantastic._ He quickly hazarded a glance over his shoulder, internally praying that the shed was still standing resolute-- still protecting the nest, and his precious Omega. Thankfully, it was, but he wasn’t sure how much longer it would last. His pack was badly outnumbered by feral Alphas, and feral Alphas were berserkers. They had little regard for injuries, in fact, Bokuto knew from personal experience that a feral Alpha didn’t even _feel_ their injuries at all. They were goal oriented creatures, and the goal today was Suga.

He could see that Kuroo was doing everything in his power to keep two male Alphas from prying at the now-rickety door of the shed. Hajime was engaged with a large female, one that Bokuto recognized from the University rowing team, and the pair were rolling around in the grass, growling and clawing at each other with fury. Neither one seemed to have the upper hand, which rattled him to the core. He always considered Hajime to be unmatched when it came to other Alphas. Closer to the right side, Oikawa was kicking into a rather surly opponent and had pulled out a large bottle of Alpha spray to dispatch the man for good.

_How long until Campus Security showed up? Or the police? They needed to end things soon._

Before Bokuto had the chance to locate Miyo, or to see how Yuji was fairing on the far left, a harpy with soft green hair jumped him from the side. He barely managed to dodge the quick attack, receiving a deep scratch across his face from her painted nails that was both painful and irritating. He swiftly parried with his own punch, accidentally knocking the woman in the neck with a closed fist. She wailed out from the bizarre strike and clutched at her throat as she fell to her knees, gasping through hoarse vocal cords. As per usual, he didn’t have the time to finish her off before another one latched onto him from the back. He clawed over his shoulders, pulling at the woman’s long, pink hair as she hooked a sinewy arm around his neck.

He dropped down to his knees and rolled onto his back, slamming her body against the hard earth in an attempt to dislodge her. When he felt her cough loudly against his back and relax her grip, he shot up to a seated position. For a brief moment, frozen on his haunches, he caught Oikawa’s frantic eyes. The chestnut Omega stood only a few feet away with a hand clamped around his bottle of Alpha spray, his long fingers white and tense. Bokuto knew exactly what the boy was thinking-- he was debating whether or not to spray at the harpies.

He knew that he would be collateral damage if Oikawa chose to spray, which was likely the source of the Omega’s hesitation. However, by this point in time, he was growing desperate. He wasn’t sure how long he had been fighting for, but the constant aches in his screaming muscles were very telling. He wouldn’t be able to keep up his defense of the shed for much longer and he hadn’t even managed to knock out a single opponent-- the shitty harpies he was up against were too organized in their fighting. They were most definitely in a pack and, because of that, they were successfully wearing him down. He knew that it wouldn’t be long until one of them incapacitated him, or until they lost interest in him as a threat altogether. Either way, he was screwed. Something needed to be done and Oikawa had the right idea.

_Sure, I could be a martyr,_ he mused to himself with a sly, Bokuto-like smirk-- he had only recently learned the meaning of the word from Keiji. _Why the fuck not?_   

The instant that thought flashed across his mind, he heard the pink haired Alpha clamor to her feet behind him. As he scrambled to his own footing, she launched at him, but this time, her grip around his neck was ironclad. As he renewed his efforts to throw her twisted form off once more, the final harpy, one with startling blue eyes, burst past him on the left-- beelining it towards Oikawa and the shed.

With wide eyes, he rasped at Oikawa and clawed at the solid arms around his neck. “Spray...SPRAY!” He coughed out in with desperate growl. “SP-SPRAY IT OIK-OIKAWA! FUCK, SPRAY IT!”

Oikawa hesitated at first, his chocolate eyes flickering between the wily harpy that was running straight for him at full speed, and to Bokuto’s struggles against the pink haired woman. Then, his mouth set in a hard line and he jerked forward a couple steps, then pushed down on the large canister. The air around him burst in a puff of terrible smelling mist that left Bokuto and his attacker in a hacking fit of nausea. Bokuto felt his eyes begin to tear up in their sockets, but he wasn’t sure if it was from his lack of airflow, or the spray itself.

For a moment, he was at peace with his fate. _Yes,_ he was likely going to get choked out in a cloud of unpleasant mist, which definitely wouldn’t do his poor body any favours, but at least the harpies would go down with him. Then, through blurry vision, he saw the blue-eyed woman shoot through the grey smog, plowing herself directly into Oikawa. He was certain the the chestnut Omega had been expecting the attack, but that readiness didn’t stop the large canister of spray from flying through the air at the impact. It landed with a soft  _clang_ in the grass a few feet next to Bokuto-- waiting, like a bomb ready to explode.

His yellow eyes widened in fear and he forced himself to ignore his uncomfortably churning stomach. If that Alpha spray made its way into the hands of one of his cunning attackers, it would mean game over for both him and Oikawa-- maybe even their team in general. With it, the three harpies could fully incapacitate him, then claw their way out of the spray’s diameter to high-tail it for the shed. He renewed his struggles, reaching behind him with a heavy hand to grab at the pink-haired woman’s loose shirt. After adjusting his grip, he swung his arm forward with all his might and brought the woman down on the grass in front of him with a heavy _thud_. She erupted in a fit of coughing snarls and clawed at the grass as she combated her winded breath, but the misty air wasn’t doing her any favours.

Bokuto didn’t even spare her another glance. Instead, he began to drag his unsteady feet across the grass, towards the spray. He just needed to get to it and throw it as far away as possible.

_Throw it away. Throw it far away. Get it away from them._

Then, something happened that he did not account for. The green haired harpy had recovered from his throat punch. She propelled into his unsuspecting side and the two of them landed on the metal canister. He heard a loud _pop_ ring out around them as the can exploded beneath their weight, coating the two of them in a chemically substance that stung his already scratched up skin.

It took him a few moments to figure out what was going on, he was too disoriented from the smell and high-pitched noise of the burst. He was certain that his eyes were open, but he couldn’t see anything beyond a blurry mess of grey and the pastel hair colours of the harpies. His other senses immediately heightened, then shriveled away from the sensory overload of the spray. His world became dull and distorted. He couldn’t smell anything but a chemical residue that burned through his nostrils and throat. He could pick up on subtle note of Suga’s heat, but he had no idea where it was coming from anymore. His body ached and his open wounds felt like they were be seared with battery acid. He couldn’t see anything through his watery eyes and he could feel tears streaming down his cheeks, sliding through the slimy residue that had coated his clawed up face. Somewhere next to him, he could feel one of the harpy woman rolling around in pain and he could hear her growling out her misery.

His own throat was rumbling out, subconsciously releasing sounds of his distress. His instincts were echoing inside his head, retreating back to the deepest recesses of his mind to escape the oppressive Alpha spray. He clawed out at the dry grass and began to drag his body forward. He didn’t know what direction he was heading, but it didn’t matter. He just needed to find fresh air.  


	54. Heartbeats

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, this chapter will definitely receive some pretty heavy edits at a later date, but I am v tired right now sooooo.
> 
> xoxooxxx Victoria
> 
> (Edit #1 Complete)

**Chapter Fifty Four: Heartbeats**

**Tsukishima~**

When Tsukishima arrived at the expansive park, bathing in the orange light of the sun, it looked to him like all hell had broken loose. He was quick to spot the metal maintenance shed, in fact, it was pretty hard to miss with all of the chaos surrounding it. To the right, there was a large cloud of grey mist that instantly drew his eye, and he quickly pegged it as a massive amount of Alpha spray by the burning scent of it. He couldn’t make out if anyone was inside the toxic cloud, but if they were, god help them.

He quickly raked his analytical gaze over his housemates nearest the shed, then darted his eyes to the left where Yuji was smartly fighting outside the seven meter radius. He needed to make a quick decision on where he was best needed. While he had a lot of concerns with the inner defenders, struggling to keep feral Alphas at bay, he knew that he couldn’t offer them any legitimate help. He was already antsy, smelling Suga’s scent through the heavily concentrated air of the park, he couldn’t risk getting too close. He glanced to the right once more and, satisfied that the toxic Alpha spray was enough defense in itself, he tossed his stolen bike to the grass and jogged towards Yuji-- the only obvious place he could lend some assistance.

His scrappy teammate looked like he had been through the ringer. His usual, energetic body language was sluggish and he seemed to be fighting against his own legs just to stand up straight. His slumped shoulders moved up and down as he took in deep breaths of air, trying to fight back against his bodily exhaustion. The grass around him was strewn with two unconscious Alphas-- the female was in _much_ better shape than the male. It seemed to Tsukishima that Yuji had held some sort of vendetta against the male, with his swollen face bruised to such extremes. He grimaced at the unconscious man’s injuries as he jogged past him, towards Yuji, then he looked forward at his soon-to-be opponents. _Three._ Three nearly feral, or possible fully feral, Alphas against him and a very beat up Yuji. There was no way they would be able to win, not with those terrible odds. His eyes narrowed at the largest of the bunch, and he nearly snickered when he saw the man’s uniform.

_A Campus Security officer, really? Did they not train them for situations like this? How irresponsible._

“Glad...to...see...you,” Yuji panted out as he approached. “The one of the left...he’s good. Can’t beat him. I haven’t been able...to even land a punch. Also...security officer.”

“I can see that. And can you beat any of them, really?” He chirped back and, after receiving a vicious stare in return he added, “In your state, I mean.”

Yuji was quiet for a moment, staring at their opponents with unchecked fury in his hazel eyes. “No. But I’ll fucking die trying.”

Tsukishima opened his mouth to respond with a cheeky, stabbing remark, but decided against it. He knew that every word out of Yuji’s mouth was deadly serious and he could hear the hidden desperation behind the resolute tone. He could almost _feel_ the scrappy Alpha’s anxiety over Yachi, his _new_ Omega, and his stress over the well-being of the pack as a whole. All of the inner turmoil that Tsukishima was feeling, and fighting tooth and nail against, Yuji had fully embraced. He wasn’t sure whether the kid was a fool, or a bigger man than he was-- he didn't have the time to contemplate the matter.

“Did you bring anyone else?” Yuji asked, his voice strained by a low growl.

“No,” Tsukishima replied with a curt shake of his head. “Nobody.”

“That’s a shame...I guess you’re always alone any...” Yuji started, but cut his final words short when his gaze flickered further back to yet another approaching Alpha-- one that Tsukishima immediately recognized.

His blood began to boil, seeing the man’s face again-- Jacky, the Alpha who had openly attacked Nishinoya, right in front of him. The man who had attacked _him_ in his own damn  _territory._ As Jacky jogged forward, he moved to the left to run in a large semi-circle, away from the three feral Alphas, and Tsukishima furrowed his brows. 

_Why had he chosen to approach from the side? Was he looking to sneak past to get to the shed?_

“Yuji,” Jacky called out with a guttural growl as he closed the distance between them. “What the fuck is all of this? Is that Omega yours?”

Tsukishima immediately moved to launch at the man, but stopped short when the feral security guard moved forward to take advantage of his upset. _Yes,_ wanted to tear Jacky’s black hair from his head, but he forced himself to take in a few deep breaths and think calmly. He and Yuji needed to stay in their right minds and band together if they were going to find a way through this-- if they wanted live to see another shitty day.

“Yes. He’s _ours,”_ Yuji snarled back, his tone hostile that still seemed somewhat welcoming of the potential help. “If you want him, I’ll slaughter you before you can take another step.”

Jacky slowed his approach at the verbal challenge and held up his hands. “I’ll help. Control. I have it,” he replied with a hearty rumble from his throat.

Tsukishima knew that the words were choppy from the Alpha's over-eager instincts-- set off by Suga’s heated scent.

_Help...help?! When the man could hardly speak in full sentences?_

He could feel his own throat rumble out with furious discontent at the very idea of Jacky helping them. He was not going listen to a single word out of the man’s twisted mouth. Without another thought, his instincts lurched up and his body moved with them, propelling him forward towards Jacky with a vicious snarl. Before he could reach the source of his rage, the large security guard outpaced him, crashing into him with force. His body slammed into the hard earth, but he was quick to jab out a defensive elbow at the man’s temple. After he made impact, he writhed his body about, trying to dislodge himself from beneath the Alpha's heavy weight when suddenly, the man was yanked off. He staggered to his feet, sucking in large breaths of air and his darkening eyes snapped over to Jacky-- now struggling against the much larger, feral Alpha.

“TSUKISHIMA!” He heard Yuji roar out from behind him, but he the call didn’t register in his brain. It was still trying to analyze the strange thing that had just occurred.

_Why, why did Jacky help him? How did one of the most disrespectful Alphas he had ever met...have so much control over his feral nature...around an Omega that he held no allegiance for?_

“FOR CHRISTS SAKES! TSUKISHIMA! GET THAT ONE BEFORE THEY GET TO THE RADIUS,” Yuji cried out, his voice frenzied and guttural. When Tsukishima remained frozen in place, fists balled at his sides as he fought through his riled up instincts, Yuji roared out again. “YAMAGUCHI. SHED. TSUKISHIMA, YAMAGUCHI!”

_Yamaguchi...in the shed._

Tsukishima’s logical mind snapped back in an instant and his feral nature cascaded down upon him in a stream of possessive howls. He swiveled on his feet and pushed his body into a full sprint to catch the fast moving Alpha-- beelining it towards the metal shed. With his longer legs, he catapulted forward and tackled the smaller woman into the grass, lashing out at her face with his fists. He knew that Yuji wouldn’t be able to keep his own opponent at bay for long-- the poor kid could barely keep his body upright. He would have to make quick work of his opponent to help his teammate-- if they wanted to keep their enemies away from Suga...and from Yamaguchi.

In that moment, as he heaved attacks at the female Alpha pinned beneath him, he came to one, terrible conclusion. It would be wise of him to put a bit of faith in Jacky. The very notion made his blood run ice cold, but he resolved save his anger until _after_ they had safety extracted Suga and the Omegas from the terrible mess. If Jacky decided to suddenly switch sides, they might be forced into an uneven position...but did he really care? _No,_ he was almost hoping for it. If that came to pass, then he could _actually_ slaughter the man. Afterall, Jacky was a decent stand in for the true source of his Alpha fury-- Emon.  

**Keiji~**

There was banging, scratching, and scraping sounds echoing from all sides of their metal prison-- it was almost deafening. Yamaguchi and Yachi were visibly shaking with anxiety, and Keiji was close to devolving into a similar state of panic. He was _trying_ his best to keep it together for his nestmates, but he had no idea what was going on outside the shed, let alone how they were going to get away safely. Especially now that things had devolved as much as they had. He didn’t know how many feral Alphas were outside, he couldn’t smell anything aside from Suga’s overbearing heat, and some small whiffs of Alpha spray. However, from the noise alone, he figured that it was a lot more than they bargained for.

He knew that Oikawa had arrived around twenty minutes ago. He had been graced with a _very_ brief phone call before the chestnut Omega had to hang up in a hurry-- probably to jump into an unprovoked fight. If his nestmate had managed to bring most of their house members, then maybe, _maybe,_ they had a shot of getting Suga out safely.

“I...need…” Suga moaned into his hearty embrace, quivering against his abdomen. “Please…”

“I know, Suga, I know,” he replied in his best, motherly tone, trying to keep his voice level. “Just hang on, okay? Just hang on for a bit longer." He continued to rub Suga’s sweaty back in small circles, then snatched his phone off of a nearby crate. After clicking it on from the side, he dialed every housemate on his list, but received no responses until he reached Shoyo’s number. “Shoyo? Hello?”

“Hello?” A chipper, yet hesitant voice rang out on the other end of the line-- likely picking up on the subtle notes of panic in his voice.

“Where are you,” he demanded in reply, adjusting Suga’s warm body in his small lap.

“We...just finished practicing volleyball. It was so weird, Daichi just-”

“Where is Daichi?” He interrupted, wanting to know if Suga’s perfect match still had a stake in things. If the worst came to pass, then maybe Daichi would be around to claim Suga before anyone else could.

Even after the brief interaction, he plainly aware that Shoyo, and likely Tobio, had no idea what was going on at the park, but he didn’t want to pull his ginger nestmate into the dangerous situation. They were already in over their heads. He didn’t have the heart to put any more lives on the line than he already had.

“He just sort of...I dunno...stormed off? Around twenty minutes ago, it was really weird…” Shoyo responded, his tone growing more suspicious. “Is...is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine. I have to go. I’ll see you later,” Keiji rattled off quickly and ended the call before he could hear any sort of response. He felt incredibly guilty for his decision to keep Shoyo in the dark, but he didn’t have time to contemplate his morals. They needed to figure out just what the _fuck_ was going on outside of their god forsaken prison. “Yachi,” he continued, directing himself to his terrified nestmate. “Call Oikawa until he fucking picks up. Yams, you call Miyo. I’m talking, over and over, until one of them responds, you got that?”

Yamaguchi murmured his understanding before a loud _clang_ rattled through the shed, followed by a ferocious roar from what Keiji recognized as Kuroo. Yachi yelped, dropping her phone to the dirt floor before nodding vigorously at his request. She scrambled to her knees and grabbed at her phone with shaky hands. Keiji grimaced at the frightened tears in her honey-coloured eyes. He was close enough to her to smell that her fear was more for Yuji and Suga, than for herself. _Already,_  he thought, his mouth set in a hard line, _she already had this much of a bond with Yuji, to know that he’s out there fighting for her._

Suddenly, Bokuto’s face flickered across his mind and he couldn’t help but smile at it, thinking about the owl’s dramatic, cocky grin. _Was he outside fighting for him, too?_ It wasn't long before the happy idea turned to ashes in his mind. If Bokuto was outside, he was definitely going to get injured in all the chaos-- maybe even killed. This wasn’t a normal brawl, this was a fight to claim an Omega in heat. Keiji's gut twisted into a mess of nausea and anxiety at the very notion of losing _his_ Alpha. He had grown so attached to the owl, he couldn’t imagine going on in life without him. For a few minutes, he stewed with the tragic feeling as he fiddled with the sweaty ends of Suga’s silver hair. Then, he forced himself to take in a deep breath and store his emotions away. He _needed_ to be a leader, and a leader couldn’t afford to have those kinds of thoughts. Not right now.

**Oikawa~**

Every fiber in Oikawa’s being was screaming at him to help his mate against his opponent, but he wasn’t in any position to offer assistance-- no matter how badly he wanted to. Hajime had been engaged in a vicious brawl with a large female Alpha for much longer than Oikawa was comfortable with. Each time she landed a blow on his body, it felt like a dagger to Oikawa’s fast-beating heart.

With the help of Miyo, he had dispatched two, less dominant Alphas-- the second of which had blown his large canister of Alpha spray right from his hands. Now, he and Miyo stood in front of a grey cloud of toxic spray...and Bokuto was somewhere inside of it-- something that made him sick to his stomach to even think about.

“We have to get him out,” Miyo asserted as she rose up from atop the unconscious, female harpy. “You know what happens when this much spray is-”

“I know,” Oikawa interjected, more harshly than he had intended. He was _furious_ with himself for being so irresponsible with his spray-- for allowing Bokuto to suffer the consequences of his actions.

“Every Alpha in there will be down for the count, but this much chemical will affect us too,” Miyo said carefully, implicitly understanding that the true source of Oikawa’s bitterness was with himself. “We need to get them _all_ out.”

Oikawa grimaced, then nodded without taking his eyes off of the gaseous cloud. Miyo extended a hand, stained crimson from holding her broken nose, and he took it. Together, they stepped into the mist, pinning their shirts against their noses as an extra precaution. Oikawa’s hazel eyes began to water from the chemicals and he drew in shallow breaths through his nose-- not wanting to take in any of the toxins through his mouth.

They stumbled upon a female Alpha first, one with long pink-hair. Miyo released his hand and gestured to the woman, indicating that she would pull her out to fresh air while he continued to look for others. He nodded his understanding, wiping his blurry eyes with the bottom of his turquoise shirt. He didn’t even spare his professor another glance before he quickly wandered off in his own direction.

The air was so concentrated that he could barely see even a few feet in front of him. He wasn’t sure how long he meandered through the heavy fog, but eventually, he stumbled over a dense object that hurt his foot-- Bokuto. The owl was lying, face down in the grass, supremely unconscious and very injured. With great effort, Oikawa flipped over his heavy body and nearly cried out at what he saw. Bokuto’s skin was deeply scratched, likely a side effect from fighting against the vicious, long-nailed harpies, and the open wounds were seeping out clear liquid-- almost as if they were boiling from the chemicals that was coating them.

In an instant, Oikawa was assaulted by a crippling rush of guilt and a few tears streamed down his now-oily cheeks. After a few moments, he shoved the feeling off with a shake his head, swirling the heavy fog around his chestnut locks. Then, he reached his hands beneath Bokuto’s armpits and began to trudge backwards. The owl was heavy, much heavier than Hajime, but Oikawa could feel fresh adrenaline coursing through his veins, giving him the strength he needed. He grunted and groaned as he dragged the owl’s limp body towards safety, all the while praying the the man would make it out mostly unscathed-- or at the very least, alive. When at long last, he noticed the mist beginning to dissipate around him, he gained a renewed burst of energy and yanked harder, ignoring his screaming muscles as he did so.

He tumbled backwards, bringing Bokuto’s unconscious form with him, into a fresher region of the park. Sitting up on his haunches, he took in starved breaths of air, trying to gather himself before pulling the owl further back towards the curb. “Bokuto,” he asked softly, patted the owl on his scratched up cheeks. “Bokuto please wake up…fuck...come on.”

When Bokuto remained in his silent state, Oikawa leaned forward to listen for a heartbeat. Fresh tears poured down his cheeks when he heard the sound of its soft pounding, and he let out a hiccup laugh of relief. Then, he leaned back and took in the scene before him. Miyo was struggling to drag another female Alpha out of the far side of the fog, but she seemed to have everything under control. Near the shed, he was happy to see that Hajime had finally gained an upper hand on his female opponent, but Kuroo was taking shots to the abdomen from a feral, beast of a man. Oikawa glanced at Bokuto, guilt-ridden, but moved to stand. They still hadn’t gotten Suga out, and Kuroo needed help. He had to go.

As he jogged towards the shed, his eyes flickered towards the left side of the park where Yuji had championed against more enemies than he could count. He let out an early sigh of relief, seeing that Tsukishima was now in the fray, but sucked it back in when his eyes landed on Jacky.

_Jacky...battling it out against a member of their Campus Security? In their...defense?_

He thought he had seen it all. He almost laughed at the ridiculous situation, but quickly realized that, if members of the Campus Security were beginning to arrive, it would not be long before the police showed up, too. If that happened, Suga would really be screwed. They needed to keep his identity a secret at all costs, and that would only work if the only people involved were the members of their household, and feral Alphas with foggy minds-- not trained officers with anti-heat gear. Suga would be charged with a lifetime of fines or, given how big the incident had become, he might be hit with a hefty prison sentence.

Oikawa was not going to have that. _No way in hell was he going to lose one of his best friends to something so stupid._

He renewed his quick jog towards the shed, careful to avoid the toxic mist. As he neared the metal box, he increased his speed and rammed a heavy elbow into one of Kuroo’s attackers. Before he had the chance to regain his footing and engage with an enemy, a familiar voice called out to him. “Oikawa!”

He snapped his head towards the source and his eyes lit up when he saw Yachi’s flushed face-- peeking out from a portion of torn down metal. The hole was just barely large enough to see his nestmate’s eyes, but it was enough for him to breath in a sigh of relief. They were still okay, they were still mentally holding it together-- for now.

“Give me a second, okay? We’re going to figure something out,” he quickly replied, granting the small girl with his best smile.

“We’ve been trying to get a hold of you forever you fuck!” He heard Keiji’s irritated voice chimed in from somewhere in the shed. Then, the icy Omega gentle pushed Yachi out of the way and met Oikawa’s gaze with narrow, frenzied eyes. “Where the fuck have _you_ been?”

“I’m sorry. Things got out of control. We’re going to get you out in the next five minutes,” Oikawa asserted after briskly checking his surroundings for new enemies. Kuroo was holding down the two feral men, for now, but he knew that wouldn’t last long.

“Oh yeah? You have a fucking plan or are we just winging it, cause you’ve had more than enough time to-”

“Don’t. Don’t do that. It’s a fucking mess out here, I haven’t been able to-”

“Fine. Just get us the _fuck_ out of here, Oikawa.”

Oikawa shoved down his growing panic and gave his snarky nestmate a tough nod. “I know. Look, I don’t care about the shitstorm around us. I know that we need to get you the fuck out of there. Things are only going to get worse, not better.”

“Worse?” Keiji sarcastically remarked, narrowing his gunmetal blue eyes. “How could this possibly get _any_ worse. They’re already tearing down the fucking shed around us. And where the fuck is all this Alpha spray coming from? How much did you guys fucking use?”

Oikawa’s mouth set in a hard line. He _almost_ let slip everything that had happened with Bokuto, but smartly decided against it. He wasn’t worried about Keiji being angry with him, he _had_ fucked up and he deserved to get reemed out for it. The truth was, he had kept his mouth shut out of concern for the boy's mental state. Keiji excelled at hiding his emotions, but Oikawa was equally good at picking up on them-- he could tell that the kid was fraying at the seams. He didn't need to know that his Alpha was unconscious and heavily injured, it would only worsen hit panic further. “Police. They’re going to be here soon. So we need to get you guys the fuck out of here.”

“Fuck,” Keiji cursed, then quickly glanced over his shoulder at his fellow shed-mates. “Fucking _fuck._ Get us out of here, then!”

Oikawa nodded his agreement, eyes darting between Kuroo’s losing battle and Keiji’s frantic eyes. “Five minutes. Five minutes and I’m going to bang three times on the door, okay? Open it, then and run like mad to the curb. Have your Alpha sprays ready, too.”

“No. Fucking. Shit.”


	55. Savage Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spelling mistakes and needs a couple more edits 4 sure. I HOPE this isn't too confusing. I think there are definitely some sentences that need to be reworked. 
> 
> <333

**Chapter Fifty Five: Savage Chaos**

**Ukai~**

Ukai arrived at the park twenty minutes after his unfortunate _Alpha breakdown_ at the University Security Building _._ He pulled up behind Miyo’s car with his own yellow one, swearing and cursing under his breath at how large the University campus had been to navigate through. He had never realized just how poorly planned the entire place was. Various extensions had been added on to the original campus over the years, making it a mess of dead ends and one-way streets-- ones that always seemed to lead in the exact _opposite_ direction that he needed to go.

He shoved his gear shift into park and glanced out his window at the scene before him. As he took in the absolute chaos in the park, he cursed some more-- _he should’ve fucking walked here...he could've been here much earlier._

The first thing he spotted was a massive cloud of Alpha spray, which seeped into his cabin alongside his conditioned air. His nose began to burn as it snaked into his nostrils, infuriating him further with its unpleasant smell. To the left of the fog, just barely outside of its misty tendrils, stood Miyo.

At the sight of his mate, he breathed in a heavy sigh of relief, but then he noticed her bloodied up face. He nearly choked on the unsuspecting growl of anger that erupted from his throat. From where he stood, the amount of vivid crimson covering her pale face was terrifying.

After locating his mate, he didn’t even spare a glance at the other goings on in the park-- he could care less about the anarchy after seeing Miyo so injured. He was determined to drag her, kicking and screaming if necessary, to the safety of his vehicle. Shoving open the door with great force, he stepped onto the pavement and began a brisk walk towards her. His eyes were dark, heavy with the instinctual fury that had been stewing during his frustrating drive. His vision felt focused, completely honed in on the raven Omega-- so much so that he didn’t even notice the various snarls that were echoing around him, nor the other yellow house Alphas, fighting tooth and nail against feral counterparts.

“Miyo,” he snarled out as he neared the woman, eyes darting between her and the unconscious female at her feet-- confirming that the Alpha was no longer a threat to his mate. Miyo’s eyes darted up at him, slightly opening with shock at his sudden appearance. Then, she opened her bloody mouth to respond, but Ukai beat her to the punch. “We. Are. Leaving. Now.”

It was an overly demanding command. He knew that, but he didn’t care in the slightest. His mind was all but blank-- he wanted nothing more than to get his mate the fuck out of there. He didn’t care about what had happened in the park. He didn’t care to ask why his mate was there in the first place. He didn’t give two shits about the giant cloud of Alpha spray. He didn’t even feel the need to ask if any of their students were in trouble, fighting in the park for some unseen reason. All he wanted was to extract Miyo to safety-- he would find the time to ask those questions later.

“Ukai…” Miyo said carefully, trying to ascertain his current mental state. Then, her face relaxed back to its regular form-- a sort of calm intensity. “Have you even bothered to look around? Can you not smell Suga?! We most certainly are _not_ leaving our students to deal with this mess of a-”

“Get in the fucking car,” Ukai interrupted with a vicious snarl. He had closed the distance between them and, up close, the damage on her angular face riled his instincts up even further. Her nose was beginning to swell and the narrow bone was somewhat bent to the left. The sockets of her emerald eyes were ripening with deep purple bruises and the excess blood from her damaged nose, some of which had dried around it, had also dripped down to her plump lips.

Miyo stood up straight and crossed her arms across her small bust. _“Excuse me?”_ She hotly remarked, then she looked to the left and jabbed out a delicate finger. “There’s a lot around here that requires your damn attention. It's a lot more important than my fucking face!” When Ukai’s steel gaze remained fixed on her, she continued-- this time taking a exasperated tone. “Look, for fucks sakes! Look where I’m goddamn pointing!” She yelled, jerking her arm wildly to the side.

Ukai’s instincts really didn’t care look, but he trudged through them, forcing his consciousness back to the forefront of his swampy mind. He and Miyo had partaken in many conversations over the last few weeks, most of which revolved around his need to have better control over his feral nature. She had figuratively drilled the notion into his brain that he needed to have more trust in her-- she would not hesitate to ask for his help, to ask him to save her, if and when it was necessary to do so. At all other times, in all other difficult situations, she needed him to be able to focus his energy on combating his Alpha need to keep her safe:

_Our students are onto something new, something strange and bizarre with this Alpha-Omega pack they’ve stumbled upon. There is no doubt in my mind that it is going to cause a lot of strife for them, Ukai. Such is the care with all new things, you know this as well as I do. So we have to be there for them. We have to put their needs above our own. Do you understand?_

Ukai grit his teeth at his memory of their conversation and the echoing words it left behind. He clawed back against the swirling instincts in his brain and, with great effort, slowly turned his head to the left to where Miyo had pointed. His dark eyes opened slightly with shock at the chaotic sight they took in.

_How...how had he missed this…this anarchy? Maybe he had been too honed in one his mate for his own good._

Around ten feet to the left of him stood a maintenance shed. Its shiny metal was battered and surrounded by Alphas-- both familiar and feral. Near it, Hajime was on his knees, bashing his bloodied knuckles into the face of a snarling female. Her black eyes were filled with lust from Suga's heated scent. Around the other side of the small structure, Kuroo stood with his fists in close to his face, his tall body hunched forward as he readied to brawl against two male Alphas that Ukai didn’t recognize. The sight of his two students, fighting it out for all they were worth, was enough for him to snap back to reality-- and he hadn't even seen beyond the shed to where Yuji and Tsukishima were fighting.

At long last, he was curious about the situation-- _just what the fuck had happened here?_

His throat rumbled out in discontent and he snapped his eyes had to his mate. “What’s-”

“Suga’s in heat,” Miyo quickly interrupted, taking a small step towards him to place a shaky hand on his forearm. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but Keiji is holed up with him, and with Yachi and Yamaguchi,” she paused, looking him dead in the eyes, unblinking. “They're in that god forsaken shed over there. We need to get them out…do you understand?”

 _Do you understand--_ Ukai could tell from the tone that she was asking if he was stable enough to provide them with some much needed assistance. He really wasn’t, his instincts were still more concerned with her than with the situation around them. Regardless, he wasn’t going to sit back and allow them to drag her away to safety. She would never forgive him for it.

“Yes,” he growled out his obvious lie, his tone intense and furious. It was all he could manage as a response. It was arduous, keeping his overbearing feral nature caged inside his mind. Even talking in full sentences was impossible for him right now.

“Okay…” Miyo began, not really believing him. “The moment you’re not, you tell me, got that?”

“Yes,” Ukai snarled again with a tough nod of his head.

“Good, because we need to-” Miyo asserted, but was cut short by a shrill call from the shed.

“Miyo!” Oikawa cried out as he jogged towards them, his normally quaffed hair a tangled mess of sweat and dirt. He came to a screeching halt in front of them, sucking in heavy breaths. “We...we need to get them...get them out soon. Police...campus security is showing up.”

Ukai felt Miyo’s sudden surge of anxiety through their bond. He subconsciously moved towards her slight figure to naturally combat it with a possessive, Alpha fragrance.

“We need to run Suga to the car,” Miyo put forth, eyes darting between Oikawa and the silver shed. “We have three of them now. Mine, Ukai’s, and the one you guys came in, right? It’s yours?”

Oikawa nodded, his mouth set in a hard line. “We pull Suga and put him in your car. Can you be ready? It’s now or never. We’re running out of time.”

Miyo glanced back to the shed and spoke in rushed tones. “Okay, we can do that. But we need to get your Alphas out of here, too.” She paused, humming in thought. Then, she sucked in a hearty breath and snapped her gaze back to Oikawa. “Did you get that owl boy out of there? Do we need to-”

“I got him,” Oikawa assured and Ukai noticed the lines of his face harden into a grimace. “He needs…” He paused, looking to Ukai. “Professor, can you get Bokuto to the hospital? It’s...it’s bad.”

Ukai gave the chestnut boy a curt nod. He had barely heard the conversation that had just occurred between the two Omegas. His instincts were thunderous inside his skull, roaring out with high-pitched intensity. However, they had paused their impudent screeching when the word _Bokuto_ rolled off Oikawa’s tongue. While he was nearly ten years older than the students on his team, he had grown alongside them over the last three years-- so much so that he, and his instincts, had come to consider them as his pack.

_Now...they were all his pack...Omegas and Alphas alike._

When that thought flickered across his waiting mind, his instincts stalled their frenzied roaring and he felt a sudden _whoosh_  runthough his ears. His feral nature snaked around, molding its fractured pieces together with a new motivation. They shifted their desires, turning their sights to the big picture-- to the state of their pack.

“Who else,” Ukai snarled, gnashing his teeth together as he moved in behind Miyo, placing his large hands on her shoulders to calm his nerves.

Oikawa hesitated, trying to understand the vague question, but Miyo was quick to reply. “Yuji is on the far side of the shed. He-”

“He’s in bad shape,” Oikawa inferred, cutting Miyo short. “Tsukishima is over there and he needs to be pulled out, too. And also…”

“And?” Miyo softly demanded when Oikawa drifted off in thought-- they were hard pressed for time. “And what?”

Oikawa pursed his lips, as if he was debating some grand problem. “And Jacky, he’s over there with them. We should...we should grab him as well.”

Ukai didn’t need his nose to tell that the chestnut Omega was hesitant, the boy's body language was enough in itself. He wasn’t sure just _who exactly_ Jacky was, but Oikawa was certainly wary of the guy. “On side?” He growled out, internally frustrated with his limited dialogue-- _goddamn useless instincts, I sound like a fucking four year old_ _._

“Yes…” Oikawa quietly offered, still hesitant. “I...I think so.”

That affirmation, while wavering, was enough for Ukai. He didn’t have a clue what Jacky looked like, but he could always shout out the kid’s name-- _y’know, give him a chance to snag a spot in his car._

“Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Miyo chimed in as she pulled out of Ukai's grasp to face them both. Ukai’s throat grumbled at the lack of physical contact-- his instincts were quieter with his hands on his mate. “Ukai, you pull Bokuto, Tsukishima, and Yuji with you. Oh, and this Jacky kid. Bring them to the hospital. I’m sure they’ll need it after all of this...” She trailed off, tapping her foot as she quickly shuffled through various ideas.

While she pondered, Ukai did another scan for nearby enemies, but was pleased to find that the Alpha spray-- _whatever happened there--_ was doing well to keep their right side clear. Kuroo and Hajime were working their asses off to the left. He was itching to join them, to throw his fists into something and unleash a bit of his rage, but he knew that Miyo _needed_ him to act on her behalf. She needed a fellow adult right now-- a fellow teacher. Not a wily, half-feral Alpha.

“Okay, yeah. Bring them to the hospital in your vehicle,” Miyo started up again, turning to face him. He grimaced at the sight of her damaged face and held off another instinctual surge. “Make _sure_ you get them to leave their brawls. We don't need to beat anyone into a coma at this point. Okay? Ukai...?” She insisted, poking his chest with a painted nail. “That means you, too. Don’t go jumping into a fight. At this point, it’s unnecessary. We want to extract _everyone_ from this mess, including you. We’re not trying to stir up any more aggression.”

Ukai nodded his understanding-- he would do his best, but he couldn’t promise his mate anything concrete. Keeping a leash on his feral nature was a continuous uphill battle. The hostile Alpha scents, fluttering about the dense air, were _not_ helping.

Miyo’s mouth set in a hard line and her emerald eyes narrowed, seeing through his facade. She knew that he was already struggling to keep himself together, but there was nothing that either of them could do about it. They just had to trust each other. “Okay,” she conceded with a small sigh that tore at his heartstrings-- he wanted to prove himself to her. He was going to. “Oikawa, what’s the plan with Suga. Or do we even have one right now?”

Oikawa hummed, shifting from foot to foot on the dry grass. “I talked with Keiji. I’m going to get him and our nest out of there. We’re going to sprint to your car. So-”

“Have it started,” Miyo finished, glancing towards the metal shed with worried eyes. “Hajime will pull out with Kuroo in...is that his goddamn car? Is that thing Hajime’s fucking ride?” Oikawa nodded, rolling his eyes and Miyo laughed-- it was music to Ukai’s ears. “That costs more than my fucking house, y’know. You cheeky Omega. Of course _you,_ of all people, would wind up mated with a rich Alpha.”

*******

Ukai had left the goings on near the shed to Miyo and Oikawa. His responsibility was extracting Yuji, Tsukishima, and the mysterious Jacky-- who was not so mysterious once he was actually able to _see_ the battlefield beyond the shed. It didn’t take a scientist to figure out that the stout, black-haired Alpha that was battling against a feral security guard was the kid Oikawa had spoken of. Aside from Yuji and Tsukishima, he was the only other Alpha in the vicinity that still retained a speck of his humanity.

Closest to the shed was Tsukishima, rolling around in the short grass with a smaller female Alpha. The snarky blonde had the clear upper hand, so Ukai chose to help out Yuji first-- the poor kid was bruised to hell and looked as if he was running on fumes alone. As he jogged towards the scrappy boy, he grumbled under his breath. He still hadn’t had a chance to get back at the kid for sucker punching him a few weeks earlier.

Once he was within a few meters, he lunged forward and threw a heavy elbow into the feral Alpha, then met Yuji’s astonished, hazel eyes. “Be ready. To my car. On my mark,” He growled out, words choppy from his over-eager instincts.

He knew that they had to time things perfectly. They wouldn’t be able to leave the park until _after_ Suga had successfully made it to Miyo’s car. Actually, he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to leave _at all_ anyways, not until he saw his own mate, safe and sound, inside of a locked vehicle-- speeding away from the scene.

Yuji blinked once, stunned by the sudden appearance of his coach, then nodded. His gaze darted back to the staggering Alpha before them, but when he moved in to attack once more, Ukai held up a hand. “No. Give the message. Tsukishima. And Jacky,” he commanded, throat rumbling out with aggression.

Yuji narrowed his eyes. “Jacky…?”

“Oikawa’s orders,” Ukai growled back. “Go.”

Without another word, Yuji turned on his heels and jogged back towards Tsukishima. Ukai flared his nostrils, sucking in a deep breath of dense air. The sheer amount of Alpha scents, intertwined with the sea salty air, was almost nauseating. Already, he couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of there. For a brief moment, he contemplated throwing his body into his staggering opponent to get an early upper hand, but decided against it. He needed to keep his wits about him, and a heavy clamp on his instincts. It would be unwise to fully engage in a brawl in his current mental state. He just needed to monitor the savage Alpha, nothing more. So long as the man stayed away from the shed, that was enough.

Behind him, a series of loud snarls went off and he picked up on the frantic voices of Miyo and Oikawa. He hazarded a glance behind him where the Omegas had begun to enact their plan of action. The rickety door of the maintenance shed flew open and with it came Suga’s heated scent. It burst forward with impunity, so much so that Ukai began to fear its effects on the unmated Alphas in his pack. Before he had the chance to rake his gaze back to Tsukishima and Yuji, a guttural roar lured his attention to the feral Alpha in front of him. The man shot forward in a fast spring, high-tailing it for Suga, but Ukai was ready for it. He bowled into the man, pinning his squirming form beneath him with a knee on his neck. Then, he threw a punch upwards, into the man’s open jaw, and received a wailing howl in response. No matter how hard he punched, his opponent continued to struggle viciously against him. He scratched at Ukai’s exposed forearms, at his unguarded face, and yanked at his dress shirt-- the _only_ dress shirt Ukai owned.  

Ukai jabbed down his elbow again, throwing it into the Alpha’s temple to knock him out, but the man’s instincts were too wily. They _needed_ to make a claim on Suga and they didn’t care about the bodily damage their desire might cause. When Ukai lined up to strike again, the man swiftly rotated his hips, attempting to flip their positions. Ukai contested the move, the muscles in his abdomen screaming their protest, but a deep-seated feeling boosted his resolve. Miyo was behind him-- his mate was behind him with Suga and the Omega nest. He was not going to let a single Alpha past him. He would die before he allowed that to happen.

He felt like he had been fighting for an eternity, but it had only been a few seconds. He knew that he had been forced into difficult position-- between a rock and a hard place. He wanted to glance back to see if the Omegas had gotten Suga to the safety of the car. In fact, he _needed_ to see if they were safe if he was going to enact his part of their plan. He also needed to see if Yuji and Tsukishima had retained their humanity after the bursting release of Suga’s heated scent. But, he couldn’t risk any of it. He couldn't dare to tear his eyes from his opponent. If he did, the man would surely incapacitate him and bowl right into the fleeing Omegas. As he strained his muscles further, trying to suffocate the Alpha beneath him with flexed thighs, he sniffed the air. He thought that maybe he could ascertain _something_ by scent, but the air was too overburdened with pheromones, Suga’s heat, and Alpha spray.

When a shrill scream echoed out from behind him, followed by a loud roar and a series of frantic snarls, he lost his resolve and tore his gaze away. His dark eyes landed on Keiji, holding Suga over his back, stalled in place halfway to Miyo’s car. Behind him, Yamaguchi and Yachi were frozen with wide eyes. Even from his place, more than fifteen meters away, Ukai could see that the two Omegas were quivering with terror. Oikawa stood in front of the group, protective, like a mother ready to strike, and between them and the vehicle, humming with Miyo inside, stood an Alpha with eyes as black as night.

And that wasn’t the only threat, not by a long shot. Kuroo was doing his best keep a surly male Alpha from attacking the group from behind, but the man was trudging forward against the rooster’s full weight-- egged on by intense smell of heat. Hajime too was exerting the last of his strength to keep his female opponent in check. Ukai could _feel,_ perhaps through their bond as a pack, that the boy was fighting to keep his anxious emotions in check. His mate, his _new_ mate, was the only thing standing between Suga and a savage Alpha, hell-bent on claiming.

Although it had taken Ukai mere moments to intake the information, it was long enough for his own opponent to reverse their weights. With a quick swivel of his hips, he slammed Ukai against the hard earth and clamored to his feet with a possessive snarl. Then, he took off with a burst of speed towards the exposed Omega group. Ukai ignored his spinning head, roaring in a constant loop as he pushed to his feet to follow the man. He flew by Yuji and Tsukishima-- luckily, both were still in control of their instincts and were holding down a feral female in a conjoined grab-lock.

Ukai was less than a pace behind the escaping Alpha, his veins alit with frenzied panic. He had one job, one _fucking_ job, and he had failed it. He pushed his mature muscles to their absolute limit and the world around him slowed as he reached forward to grab at the man’s shirt. His fingers strained, clawing out for the colourful fabric, and he felt cotton against his fingertips. His throat rumbled out as he closed his hand around it, but it slipped away from his grasp. In that moment, his mind was blown into regions of panic that he had never before experience.

 _Still a chance,_ his instincts screeched inside his mind, flooding him with a new burst of adrenaline. _Tackle. Jump. Tackle. Keep him away from our Omegas._

As he readied himself to launch forward, he saw Oikawa jump at his own opponent-- attempting to create a small opening for Suga and the Omegas to get through. Ukai roared out, egging himself on as he lunged forward at the Alpha. He plowed his full weight into the man and the two of them rolled across the grass before coming to a halt several meters away. Every muscle in his body screamed out at the hard tumble, but he ignored them once again. His opponent was already scrambling to his feet, getting ready to renew his sprint towards his unearned prize. Ukai needed to move. He pushed himself up alongside the man and charged into his hips, pummeling into his face with large fists to incapacitate him.

Beyond them, Oikawa was struggling to keep the savage Alpha under control-- failing to create an opening for his Omega nest. Yamaguchi looked as if he was going to move, but he hesitated, fiddling with the ends of his shirt. Then, his freckled face hardened and he suddenly darted forward. He yelled out, almost roaring, as he jumped upwards and attached himself to the legs of Oikawa’s opponent-- like vine on a wall.

“GO!” Oikawa screamed to the remaining Omegas as he launched onto the back of the savage Alpha. “KEIJI NOW GODDAMMIT!”

Keiji hesitated for a moment, but started into a jog, moving to the right with Suga jostling on his back. He moved closer to the cloud of Alpha spray-- smartly trying to stay out of the reach of the now-entangled Alpha.

Ukai held onto his own opponent with renewed strength-- admiration for Oikawa and Yamaguchi had brought another surge of adrenaline to his old body. He was holding on with everything he had and he was going to keep his grip strong and true-- even if it took his life to do so.  


	56. Forbidden Mates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, this is short and sweet. Next two chapters we resolve SUGA/DAICHI! YAY! See y'all tomorrow for that :)
> 
> GONNA EDIT THIS TOMORROW CAUSE IT NEEDS A CLEAN EDIT preeeeeetty bad. Sorry guyz. 
> 
> Actually seriously, this chapter needs REVISION!!!!

**Chapter Fifty Six: Forbidden Mates**

**Daichi~**

Daichi felt like he was trapped inside of his own mind. He had allowed his instincts to take full control of his body and now, he had been placed inside of the mental cage that was normally reserved for them. He watched as they shoved his body through the wooden door of the locker room, ignoring the suspicious eyes of Tobio and the verbal questions from Shoyo.

Upon leaving the bright gym, his body was launched into an all-out sprint across the large campus. After running for some time, he began to feel his lungs burning inside of his chest and his body screamed at him to slow down-- to allow it to catch a much needed breath. His feral nature ignored it and pushed onward. Even when his legs turned to jelly and his shoulder muscles bunched in knots of exhaustion, they continued, searching for their unknown goal.  

Daichi had absolutely _no_ idea where they were taking him, let alone what they wanted. The only thing he _did_ know was that something inside of him felt _wrong._ Under normal circumstances, he had always been able to dissect his instincts and figure out the underlying cause of their tumultuous emotions, but nothing had been normal since his break from Suga. And right now, they were even worse. They were a swirling mess of knots, roaring and flailing about in every direction of his mind. They were frantic, he could translate that much for sure, but the rest of them seemed to be speaking an entirely different language. There were a variety of emotions that came and went too fast for him to grab a hold of. Underneath the chaotic mess he could identify his usual, underlying current of anxiety, but that was nothing new. It had been present since the very moment Suga had ended things between them. In fact, he had become quite intimate with _that_ particular emotion.

As he neared Waterfront park, his instincts began to dash about even faster-- bouncing around like the balls in a pinball machine. He didn’t think it even possible, for them to become even more loud, disorienting, and obnoxious, but they did. When he reached the curb of the expansive park, his overworked brain suddenly quieted. Quieted to almost nothing. His frayed instincts crackled across his brain and they began to stick together at a rapid pace that stunned him. In mere milliseconds, they packed themselves down into a small, dense, organized ball-- one that had a very clear goal in mind.

Only, Daichi still had no idea what the fuck that goal was.

The instinctual ball hummed around in his skull and he blinked back small portions of his sanity. _So, they thought fit to free him from his conscious prison..._ _guess he was in the right place?_ At that thought, he shook his head to assert himself back in reality and took in the scene before him.

A few meters next to him were three parked cars, all of which he recognized. The middle one was humming with life and inside, Miyo was seated in the driver's seat, starting at him with her mouth parted in a slight _oh_ of surprise _._ Beyond the front car, Hajime’s vehicle, two Alphas were prowling on the dark pavement. Both wore fresh uniforms of campus security officers, something which perplexed Daichi. They had black eyes, clouded by their rampant feral nature, and their shoulders were bristling with agitation-- stalking something that he had yet to see.

 _Feral._ His instincts offered up in answer when his gaze stayed fixed on the two men for too long-- longer than they wanted it to. He absentmindedly nodded his understanding and his throat rumbled his agreement. Still, he tried to probe at the instinctual ball, _why are we here, what do you want me to do,_ but received no answer. His feral nature had sucked in every emotion he had, leaving him analytical, detached, and more than a little confused. He just wanted to know what he was doing there, at Waterfront park, but they refused to give him even a snippet of information. _Fine,_ he thought out with impunity, _I'll figure it out for myself._

His eyes darted across the expansive green space. Directly in front of the two savage men by the curb there was a giant cloud of Alpha spray. It loomed underneath the orange sun, playfully swirling with the evening breeze. He couldn’t smell it, in fact, he couldn’t smell anything at all. All of his senses, save for his eyesight, had been robbed from him. They too were sucked into the dense ball of instinctual matter. He started to ponder where the giant cloud could have come from, but quickly submitted to his feral nature’s impatience once more-- they were searching the area for something more specific. As with the feral security guards, they wanted him to move on and find it.

Near the fog, his dark eyes landed on his coach, fighting against a burly Alpha male. He could hear snippets Ukai’s deep roars, but they sounded muffled and warped inside his ears. Again, he moved on, raking his listless gaze further to the right where a heavily damaged shed stood resolute. Its metal paneling was flush with dents, both big and small, and it looked ready to cave in on itself. Near it, Hajime and Kuroo were engaged in their own brawls, bloody and bruised against two more savage Alphas. Even further left, Yuji and Yamaguchi were tussling against a vicious female Alpha.

Suddenly, Daichi felt his heart flutter with a fleeting emotion. He quickly pegged it as an instinctual feeling that was beyond the control of his own feral nature-- it was directly linked to the members of his pack. It took milliseconds for him to connect its obscurity to Hajime. It was a fragment of the Alpha’s rampant anxiety-- his intense fear for the safety of his mate, Oikawa. This time, Daichi pushed past his goal-oriented instincts and acknowledged the shared emotion. Then, he began searching for Oikawa's form-- searching so that he could provide some assistance against the the unseen trouble that had Hajime so worked up. When his vision passed over the chestnut Omega, he took note of yet another savage Alpha.

_How many was that now? Why were they all here?_

The man was entangled with Oikawa’s lithe body and, much to Daichi's surprise, with the timid Yamaguchi as well. The three of them were a few meters ahead of the shed, just a little ways out of Hajime’s reach. For a moment, Daichi pondered why Hajime hadn’t left his current opponent to help his mate-- _he_ was holding the female Alpha down, not the other way around. He could easily close the distance and get to Oikawa.

_So...why wasn’t he?_

Daichi hummed inside his mind, emotionally detached yet still perplexed. Then, he dropped the idea altogether and began to walk towards Oikawa.

He moved forward slowly, his feet felt light on the dry grass. He didn’t feel the need to run towards the feral Alpha to help the Omegas-- he wasn’t sure as to why. There wasn’t a single note of panic in his entire body, perhaps, he had his instincts to thank for that. It had been a long time since he felt so content. He _liked_ not feeling his usual heartbreak for Suga. He liked the silence, he liked it a lot.

As he got ever closer to Oikawa and Yamaguchi, his instincts began to jut out from their dense ball-- screeching in quick bursts inside his skull. He could tell that they were unhappy with him-- he was deviating from his task. _But what was his task?_ He tried to beseech them again, explaining that things would go easier if he knew what it was that they wanted.  

 _For crying out loud, what is it you want me to find?_  He internally commanded in a monotone voice. _What are we doing here?_

While he was aware that his pack was in trouble, it was obvious from his visual surroundings, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to care. He wanted to, but the feeling kept getting sucked into the small vortex in his mind. Aside from the subtle pang he had felt earlier-- Hajime's emotion-- he had felt no emotions of his own.

That is, until his gaze flickered back over to the cloud of Alpha spray on the right. Just inside the mist, shrouded from his previous position at the curb, was Keiji and Yachi. His dark eyes narrowed, taking in the slumped figure on Keiji’s narrow back-- Suga.

At that sight, the dense lump of his instincts shot out, spiking up against his retinas. He nearly keeled over in pain at their jabbing intensity. Suddenly, a series of tumultuous emotions burst out of the ball and he was overwhelmed with a desire to get Suga somewhere safe. He didn't feel his heartache over losing the Omega. He didn't feel the anger of rejection. The only emotion his instincts allowed him access to was one of ownership.

_Away from the park. Away from the park. Get. Him. Out. NOW!_

For a brief moment, his hearing cleared and he was overwhelmed with the sounds of furious roars, snarling cries of possession, and frantic calls from his teammates. Then, everything was silenced again. His feelings plummeted back into the vortex, packed in alongside his feral nature. He glanced back to Keiji, to Suga, then to the feral Alphas surrounding them and the dense ball of instincts began to hum inside his skull. It vibrated, growing louder and louder until he felt like his entire head was shaking around in every direction. Finally, they shot out again like spikes and a booming roar escaped his lips, thundering through the park.

Unbeknownst to Daichi, his roar was earth-shattering to everyone around him. Every Alpha in the vicinity, including those his own pack, froze mid-movement. The vicious sound echoed down the beach, towards the ocean, where it lost itself in the dark blue waves. Its message was clear as day to everyone, aside from Daichi himself. It was supremely possessive, damning of every Alpha that thought they had a shot at claiming Suga.

The silver Omega was _his,_ and only _his._

He briskly strode towards the mist, vision honed in on Suga-- the boy that he wished was _his_ in reality. Everything around him was silent and completely muted, save for his soft movement across the dry grass-- crunching with each step he took. When he was just feet away from Keiji, he saw the boy’s lips move on his pale face, but whatever message the Omega intended for him to hear was lost on his ears. His nose didn’t register the overbearing Alpha spray, and he didn’t even feel the warmth of the orange, evening sun.

With large hands, he reached forward and gingerly pulled Suga from his perch on Keiji’s back. Cradling the silver Omega in his arms, Daichi heard the boy’s heart beat in a pleasant rhythm. It felt so familiar to him that almost hurt just to think about it. His instincts fluttered around like butterflies, exuding their joy as they softly swept outside of their ball before condensing back into it-- pulling every happy emotion in with them.  

While his feral nature was aware that Suga had gone into heat, his conscious mind was kept in the dark. His senses were completely absent, his instincts had made sure of it had made sure of it. They wanted Suga’s safety to be the utmost priority, and that wouldn’t be the case if the conscious side of Daichi fell prey to the silver Omega’s heat.

Daichi did however, in his muted brain, understand one thing. His pack had been outside in the park, fighting tooth and nail to protect _his_ Omega from harm. For that, he was eternally grateful. He didn’t know what had happened or why, but none of that mattered to him. They were his family, and he was pleased that they hadn't abandoned Suga after the two of them had broken things off. Deep down, he still wanted the silver boy to be protected. Even if he couldn’t do it himself, at least his pack could.

For a moment, admiring the flushed features on Suga’s face, he allowed himself to imagine them together as mates. It was a pleasant, outlandish dream. He knew that it was all but impossible, given the circumstances, and perhaps his instincts, in all their complexity, knew it as well. Nonetheless, they allowed him to have his silent peace for a short amount of time before they renewed their adamant preaching inside of his head. They growled out their demands in a continuous loop until he finally chose to acknowledge them.

Slowly, he walked towards the curb of the park, dark eyes still glued to Suga. He could see the silver boy’s lips moving in a series of panting words, but he still couldn’t hear a sound. He wished that he could, but quickly decided that the silence was all for the best. He didn’t want the familiar ache in his heart to come back, and Suga’s sweet voice would certainly make that happen. With that thought in mind, he smiled down at the Omega-- a sad, heartbreaking smile that was nothing but honest. He didn’t notice the tears that pooled in Suga’s honey coloured eyes, he had already torn his gaze away to look to the astonished face of Miyo. The raven woman shook her head at him, as if she was trying to bring herself back to reality from a place of disbelief. Then, she scrambled around the side of her car and opened the passenger door. Dachi bent over and gently placed Suga inside the leather confines.

When he moved to stand back to full height, a delicate hand shot out and closed in on his black shirt-- frantic and pleading with white knuckles. He looked down, taking in Suga’s breathtaking form one last time and, embedding the image inside the private section of his mind, he gingerly detached the boy’s hand from the cloth-- leaving a scrunched up imprint on the fabric.

This time, he couldn’t make the smile appear on his face. This time, he knew that he was leaving the Omega of his dreams for good. He knew it, his instincts knew it, Suga knew it, too.

Beside him, Miyo peeled her astonished gaze from him and gestured frantically at the remaining housemates in the park, her silent mouth moving in his peripheral vision. Daichi moved back a few steps, into the park, as his housemates sluggishly made their way towards the curb. He didn’t join them near the cars. His ball of instincts had slithered out once more, soft and coy, to take control of his body. They pulled him towards the ocean, ignoring the questioning calls from his pack to walk his body away.

They were going to slowly bring back his senses, to ease him back to reality. They needed a quiet place to do it-- a place where he could stew with his thoughts and emotions. Alone, and away from prying eyes.


	57. Searching for Relief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm going out with a friend tonight so I don't think I'll be able to get the next chapter out, sorry!!!!!!! More to come soonish (just not sure when exactly)
> 
> Thanks for being patient, AND for the f***ing lovely comments. xxoxoxoxox

**Chapter Fifty Seven: Searching for Relief**

**Keiji~**

Keiji had driven to Miyo’s house with Oikawa, Yachi, and Yamaguchi following the strange events at the park. Luckily, they had managed to keep Suga's identity a secret-- no police had arrived while they had been there. The first thing they did when they arrived at the professor's home was set up Suga inside a spare bedroom, shoving bath towels around the door to stifle the intense scent of his heat. While they were all Omegas, the overbearing fragrance was still irritating for them smell. After securing the silver boy in his solitude, they piled into her spacious living room to gather themselves after the chaotic afternoon.

Hajime had driven Kuroo to the hospital, behind Ukai’s Alpha-packed car. He dropped the rooster off and, refusing medical care for his own wounds, drove to Miyo’s place. Keiji figured that the man took no issue in prioritizing the needs of his mate over his own.

Keiji had seen Bokuto’s damaged form with his own eyes before they had left the park. As Kuroo and Tsukishima gently packed the owl into Ukai’s car, his Omega instincts set off-- maternal emotions that wanted nothing more than to care for  _ his  _ very injured Alpha. However, given the circumstances, he was forced to box them away for the time being. He and Bokuto weren’t a mated pair, which meant that the owl had to be taken to an Alpha hospital.

Much like Omega hospitals, Alpha ones didn’t allow their Omega counterparts to visit without special circumstances. It was too dangerous for everyone involved. Pheromones and emotions ran high in such places, so it was easier to keep them separate. For the first time in his life, Keiji found himself wishing that he was mated with an Alpha-- mated to Bokuto. If that had been the case, then he could have stayed by the owl’s side, day and night, until the Alpha woke up, good as new. Unfortunately, his hands were tied by their reality.

As he sat cross legged on Miyo’s living room floor, running his fingers through the soft fibers of her throw rug, he listened to the hushed conversations around him. Across from him, leaning against a bit of open wall space, Oikawa was tending to Hajime’s wounds-- chastising the Alpha with cheeky comments each time he flinched away. Yachi was holding a bag of ice to Yamaguchi’s bruised forehead on the leather couch, smiling sweetly at the freckled boy as she spoke quiet words to him.

Seeing the pleasant, caring interactions around him made Keiji long for the presence of his own Alpha. Again, he felt a new surge of intense need, embedded in the marrow of his bones, to tend to Bokuto’s various wounds. With a heavy sigh, he shoved the feeling away before it had time to permanently set in. Hajime had promised him that Kuroo was going to keep an eye on the owl and that he would update them the second he had any important information. Keiji reiterated that fact over and over in his mind, forcing himself to rely on the Alphas in his pack to care for Bokuto in his place...and to have faith that the owl was going to make a full recovery.

_ He was tough...whiny...but tough. He was going to be fine. _

Keiji couldn’t stop a few waves of stray anxiety from festering inside his chest, but he did his best to clamp down on them before they could grow in strength. He focused all of his remaining mental energy on reigning in his scent. He _really_ didn’t want to talk about Bokuto and, if anyone happened to pick up on his strained fragrance, they would no doubt bring up the subject. He knew that feeling sorry for himself, and worrying about something that he had no control over, was unproductive. So, he decided, then and there, that he needed a welcome distraction. Across the open living space, Miyo furiously chatted into the device at her ear, pacing back and forth across the clean hardwood. Keiji knew that his professor had wasted no time before calling the _Omega Outreach Line--_ a non-profit, government-run organization that was the main support line for Omegas. The circumstances with Suga, while rare, were nearly impossible to find help for. It was impossible, not to mention _illegal,_ to move an Omega that was in the throes of heat to a hospital-- regardless of whether or not the heat was abnormal in nature. In such worst case scenarios, Omegas were forced to call the _Outreach Line_ to access a free medical house-call. If the organization chose to ignore their concerns, which was often the case, they would have to hire a doctor out of their own pocket-- a rather pricey endeavor that most Omegas could not afford. For a government funded organization, they really were stingy bastards.

“Yes, I  _ understand _ that,” Miyo concurred into the speaker of her device, her teeth clenched to hold in her growing anger. “Yes...mhm...yes! Have you heard anything I’ve said in the last ten minutes? We’ve been talking in circles, you’re asking me questions that I’ve already answered! _ ” _

Keiji felt a coy smirk spread across his face as his professor’s tough attitude and dramatic performance on the phone.  _ This, this was a good outlet for him to use as a distraction. _ He perked up his ears, listening to the raven woman chatter away, all the while imagining what the poor soul on the other end of the line was saying.

“Do you take me for an idiot, sir?! Of course we did that already! More than once, might I add!” Miyo said, her voice growing more shrill in her frustration.

Keiji closed his blue eyes, imagining a calm and detached, male voice on the other end of the line. In his mind’s eye, he gave the man an infuriating, nasally voice and a stout body with a toad-like face. He liked that image, it was humorous for him to think about.

_ Ma’am, I need you to calm down, please. I’m just going through procedures- _

“I am perfectly calm!”

_ I understand that, but everything I am asking you is our policy, I’m not trying to upset you. _

“Oh for christ's sake, you’re _not_ upsetting me! Listen. To. What. I. Am. Telling. You. We’ve already stabbed him with a bazillion injectors and, like I said before, his heat is not subsiding! I need you to tell me if there’s a doctor that can-”

_ Have you checked the expiration date on the injectors in question? _

Miyo paused her rampant pacing, her emerald eyes narrowing with a surge of fury. “Are you...are you fucking kidding me right now? Do you think we’re totally irresponsible?! That we’re just...we’re just _waltzing_ around with expired heat injectors!? Of course they’re not expired!” She screeched into the phone, running a shaky hand through her long hair. “Oh, here, let me save you a step! We’ve used injectors from DIFFERENT companies as well! It’s not a goddamn faulty batch, you got that? Are you understanding what I'm saying or am I speaking in another language?”

_ Again, ma’am, its policy for me to ask. We need to ensure that, if it is a faulty batch, we can alert the proper authorities. _

“IT’S NOT A GODDAMN FAULTY BATCH!”

_ Ma’am, I’m just going through the proper steps so that we can offer you the best help for your situation. Please bear with me and remain calm. _

Keiji didn’t see Miyo grind her teeth together, but he could damn well hear the gnarling sound of it. “Are my tax dollars funding this god forsaken organization? I’m sorry, but are you  _ not  _ a public service agency?! I’m the public! So authorize a goddamn doctor to-”

_ We will certainly send a professional to your residence, if and when we decide that is the proper course of action to take. _

Miyo’s threw her hands into the air, exasperated, and nearly tossed her phone up with them. She let out a series of curse words under her breath and renewed her angry pacing. “I’d like to speak to your manager,” she seethed, her tone even, but intensely hostile.  _ “Clearly, _ you’re not understanding the situation that we are in as I have so  _ carefully _ explained to you.”

Keiji tilted his head to the side, taking in Miyo’s pale face. Her soft features were illuminated by the evening sun that streamed through the far windows of the room. She hadn’t even bothered to clean up her injured nose. The blood was now dry, caked onto her otherwise perfect skin in clumps of dark crimson. He thought about getting up and grabbing a warm cloth from the bathroom to clean some of it off, but the idea was cut short when he smelled Ukai’s scent swirl in from the front entryway. He craned his neck to the side, looking over his shoulder at the hallway behind him. The other inhabitants in the room, save Miyo, paused their own activities to do the same.

“Hello,” Ukai hotly growled, nodding at them as he walked through the living room with heavy steps-- not even bothering to kick off his shoes. “Miyo. Get off the phone. Your nose needs to be-”

Miyo clicked her tongue and silenced her mate with a flick of her hand. Keiji knew that she didn’t mean any offense by it, she had merely focused all of her mental energy on the state of her nest-- on the state of Suga. Like a good Omega mother, she cared little about her own well-being, even if that personality trait was likely to drive her mate to the brink of sanity.

Ukai’s throat rumbled and Keiji could smell fresh droves of Alpha frustration, seeping off his tanned skin. The coach raked a large hand through his dyed hair, shoulders bristling in agitation. “You know…” He started, looking first to Keiji, then to Oikawa and Hajime. “I’ve been through _a lot_ in the last three hours. I’ve been riddled with anxiety because of  _ my mate,”  _ he paused, emphasizing the words in Miyo’s direction. “I’ve been beat up by a goddamn feral Alpha. I’ve burned my nose on a shit load of Alpha spray. I had to pull over on the side of the goddamn freeway to put Jacky in the front seat so Tsukishima wouldn’t claw his damn eyes out. I am  _ not  _ in the mood for any of this anymore. I’m on my last nerve…” He stopped again, taking a large step towards Miyo’s distracted figure. “So...put down the _goddamn_ phone. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Keiji couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for the bristling coach. Not only had he become the unwitting _father Alpha_ to their yellow house members, but he had also mated with a very independent and wily Omega.  _ That can’t be good for his instinctual head space, _ Keiji mused as he watched the two professors exchange hot words,  _ especially right now, after everything the poor guy’s been through. This is definitely a test of patience for him. _

Miyo flashed Ukai with a set of emerald daggers and continued to ream out the person on the other end of her telephone. “Yes, I’ll hold for a stupid manager if that’s what I need to do to get a damn doctor. You hear me? I. Want. A. Doctor. Sent. To. My. House.”

Across from Keiji, Oikawa gave Ukai an empathetic look. Then, the he called over his shoulder to the pacing raven Omega. “Miyo, you should go and check your nose out at the hospital. It probably needs to be-”

“Oikawa,” Miyo warned, holding up a painted finger in his direction. “Don’t you dare start with me. You would put Suga first, too. I don’t want to hear it.”

Oikawa sighed deeply, but Keiji saw a small playful smirk dance across his face-- twisting his old scar upwards. “Hey, you’re not making any progress with that fucker on the phone,” he started, hitting Ukai with a raised eyebrow that said--  _ watch and learn Alpha-boy.  _ “If you go the hospital, you can talk to Momo. Maybe she’ll be able to get a doctor out here faster than those idiots can. Or maybe she can even come herself.”

Miyo pursed her lips, debating the idea. “Fine,” she said at last. “Fine. You win. I don't think I can spend another _second_ talking with that idiot anyways!” She continued, yelling her final words so that the poor man on the other end of the line could hear them.

Oikawa granted Ukai with another cheeky grin--  _ see, that’s how it’s done.  _ Ukai rolled his eyes, but Keiji could smell his satisfaction. He was openly relieved that he could, at long last, bring his injured mate to the hospital.

“Your car?” Miyo asked her mate, crossing the room in long strides. Her tone had completely shifted away from its previous anger. Now, it was light-- an indication that her previous irritation with Ukai was merely a side-effect of her apprehension for Suga.

Ukai pulled the smaller woman into an embrace, smelling into her raven locks. “My car. Yeah.”

“Wait,” Miyo mumbled into his yellow shirt. “Let me wash up my face first…before we go. I look like a beat up vagabond.”

“No.” Ukai growled out at once, his yellow eyes closing with renewed frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re not wasting any more time. If you get side tracked again and I’ll lose my fucking mind. I swear to god, Miyo, I’ll lose it.”

The raven Omega pulled out of his hearty embrace and raised a challenging eyebrow. “I look like I’m-”

“You  _ look  _ like you’re injured, which you  _ are,”  _ Ukai interrupted, his large hands on her slender shoulders. “And…” He continued, his gaze flicking from his mate, to Oikawa, then back again. “And...if you leave your face how it is, then I’ll put money down that we’ll get in to see a doctor faster. Which means...seeing Momo faster...which means helping Suga faster.”

Keiji heard Oikawa choke on his stifled laugh and he smelled Yachi’s humorous scent swirl around the air of the room. The coach was a fast learner, Keiji had to give him that much.

“Mmm,” Miyo hummed in thought before turning on her heels to walk towards the entryway. “Alright, smart thinking. I knew there was I reason I mated with you!”

Ukai rolled his eyes again and looked to Oikawa a final time-- _thanks for the advice_ _.  _ Then, he turned on his heels and followed his mate down the hallway.

“Oikawa, you’re in-” Miyo’s voice rang out from the other room, but quickly cut short for a brief moment. “Keiji, you’re in charge while we’re gone! Don’t break anything! And check on Suga in an hour or so, okaaaaaaaaaaaay?”

“Yup,” Keiji called back his understanding, running his small hands through the carpet again. Without Miyo’s dramatic and bubbly personality around, his distractions were going to be limited. He was going to have to find a new source of avoidance-- he still didn’t want to spend a single second thinking about Bokuto. He didn’t have the mental fortitude to deal with the intense feelings that came with it.

“Excuse me~~” Oikawa remarked after they heard the front door slam shut. “ _ Why  _ is Keiji in charge?! Did you hear her? She was going to choose me first!”

Hajime snorted, then flinched when Oikawa pinched at his bruised arm. “Why would she put you in charge? You’re the most irresponsible one here.”

Oikawa’s mouth parted, feigning shock. “Mates are supposed to support each other, Hajime~~”

“Oh, of course!” Hajime sarcastically replied. “How could I forget something so  _ obvious~~” _

As the two boys continued to chirp each other, Keiji ran his gaze over Yachi and Yamaguchi on the couch. By scent, he could tell that the former was in a heavy state of anxiety-- thinking about her own injured Alpha. Keiji was impressed that she was keeping a handle on her emotions. The old Yachi would have been a quivering bundle of stress, maybe even dissociated. With the help of their newest housemates, and Yuji himself, the small girl had become a mindful adult in a matter of months. She had burst out of her shell like a daisy in the early spring and he was thrilled by it.

Yamaguchi, on the other hand, was exuding waves of various emotions that Keiji had trouble pinning down. Some were chalk full of worry for Tsukishima, then they would flip to confusion-- as if he was trying to decide if he even had a right to be concerned about the Alpha in the first place. Finally, the scent would shift to frustration over his flip-flopping emotions before starting the cycle all over again.

Perhaps, the kid couldn’t see it yet, but Keiji knew that Tsukishima wouldn’t have shown up at the park on Suga’s account-- or for any other housemate. Aside from the freckled Omega, Tsukishima had been very good at keeping himself emotionally detached from their hybrid pack.  _ One day, _ Keiji mused with a subtle shake of his head,  _ one day, the two of them will figure their shit out and end up together. _ From his perspective, that was inevitable.

A ding from Hajime’s phone tugged him away from his musings. He glanced up, watching as the surly Alpha scrolled down on his device with bandaged fingers. “It’s Kuroo,” the Alpha affirmed, more to Keiji than to anyone else in the room. “I’m going to give him a call,” he continued, kissing Oikawa on the temple before rising to his feet with a groan. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Keiji watched the Alpha slide open the back door to the porch and step outside. In front of him, Oikawa shifted uncomfortably on crossed legs.

“Keiji…” The chestnut boy said in almost a whisper, fiddling with the ends of his dirty shirt. “I’m...I’m sorry.”

Keiji’s dark brows furrowed, confused. Oikawa’s scent wasn’t just apologetic over Bokuto’s injured state, it was self-chastising and anxious as well. He wasn’t sure as to why. “He’ll be fine,” he confirmed, as much to himself as to Oikawa. “He’s tough. He’ll shake it off. Don’t worry so much. You'll get wrinkles on your pretty face.”

Despite Keiji's lighthearted quip, the room went silent. He still hadn’t asked about the details of Bokuto’s injuries-- a conscious decision on his part. He didn’t want to know just how bad they were or what  _ exactly  _ had happened. He knew that it would fuck with his analytical mind. If he had that information, his stupid brain would automatically break down Bokuto’s recovery process, the likelihood of death or permanent injuries, into neat percentages. He would rather just assume the the owl was going to alright. That was a lot easier for him to emotionally handle at this point.

Oikawa broke the silence of the room with a heavy sigh and his dejected scent poured into the air around them. “It’s my fault...what happened...it’s all my fault. I’m...I’m so fucking sorry, Keiji.”

Keiji kept his gaze fixed on his small hands, neatly folded on his lap. “I have a hard time believing that it was  _ your  _ fault,” he murmured, firmly meaning the words. He knew that Oikawa often took on burdens that were not his own. There was no doubt in his mind that his chestnut friend was doing it here, as well.

“Really...I...I…” Oikawa whispered, trailing off, and Keiji let out his own sigh.

He didn’t want to know the details, but he also didn’t want Oikawa to stew in this undeserved self-hatred. He was going to have to take one for his Omega team-- even if if fucked up his own state of mind to do so. “Okay, so what happened?” He asked quietly, lifting his icy eyes to meet Oikawa’s worried ones. “Tell me, and I’ll tell you if it was your fault. Which, I would bet you a week's worth of coffee, that it wasn't.”

Oikawa’s mouth set in a hard line and his scar pulled downwards as the muscles in his cheeks stiffened. He reiterated the events, in great detail. Throughout the recollection, his scent was overbearing for Keiji to inhale-- completely shameful, almost to a nauseating degree. He hated that his nestmate, one of his best friends, was feeling so upset over something so obviously stupid.

“So…” He began after Oikawa had finished his arduous retelling. “Let me get this straight. You sprayed the Alpha spray after Bokuto  _ told  _ you to do it. And then you got tackled by a feral Alpha, which caused you to lose a grip on the bottle…”

Oikawa nodded, grimacing as Keiji spoke.

“And then Bokuto got attacked by some crazy chick and  _ they  _ landed on the can...which caused the stupid thing to explode,” he continued, drawing out the words with hidden sarcasm. “Am I getting all this right?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay…” He said with a slow nod, flashing Oikawa with a skeptical look. “So, what in  _ allllllll  _ of that, is actually your fault? Because I fail to see how any of it is.”

Oikawa’s face contorted and for a moment, he thought that the boy was going to cry. Thankfully, he didn’t, which Keiji was extremely grateful for. He had  _ never  _ seen his nestmate shed a single tear, he would have no idea how to handle it.

“Yachi, do you see how any of that is his fault?” He called towards the couch without breaking his lingering eye contact with Oikawa.

Yachi perked up on the cushions and flashed Oikawa with a beaming smile. “Nope!”

“Sounds to me like it was just a bunch of unfortunate events,” Yamaguchi quietly added, patting Yachi on the knee with a soft hand.

“Exactly. You got that Shittykawa? Stop taking the blame for shit,” Keiji drawled, eyeing down Oikawa until he was absolutely certain that the boy had taken the words to heart. “If anyone is to blame, it’s fucking Suga. But how are we supposed to blame him after we’ve stabbed him full of holes with heat injectors? This  _ whole _ thing, it isn’t anybody’s fault. We had each others backs, and we were all willing to get injured for it. It’s as simple as that.” He paused, rising up from the rug to reach his arms towards the ceiling in a stretch. He didn’t want to think about any of this anymore-- he needed to put all thoughts of Bokuto on the back burner before he went mad. “Now, where does Miyo keep her damn board games? I need a fucking distraction from this goddamn mess.”

“Ohhhhhhh, Monopoly!” Yachi chimed in, gracefully bouncing up from the leather couch. “Also, Oikawa…” She trailed off, patting the chestnut boy on the back with a delicate hand. “Don’t you think there are more interesting things for us to talk about? Bokuto is going to be fine. But Suga...we still have no idea what’s going on with his heat, right?”

“Or how about that crazy shit that went down with Daichi?” Keiji agreed as he unapologetically searched through Miyo’s cabinets, lining the far wall of the room.

“Mmm,” Oikawa murmured, absentmindedly nodding his head. “Yeah, what exactly was that, anyways?”

“I don’t know,” Keiji replied, poking his head inside of a large cubby hole. “But this craziness isn't anything new for us anymore. I mean, how many times in the last month have we seen shit that we thought was impossible?"

Yachi furrowed her manicured brows, then popped on another award winning smile. “You know who's going to figure out the answers to all of these mysteries? Suga.”


	58. Rumor Mill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:
> 
> #1 I know that the Bokuto stuff is minor in this chapter. Chapter 61 is going to be a time skip back, to look at how everyone handled things following the Waterfront stuff!  
> #2 I'm just editing the next chapter (Daichi/Suga) Soooo, that'll be up in a few hours.  
> #3 Beware of spelling mistakes ahahhaha

**Chapter Fifty Eight: Rumor Mill**

**Kuroo~**

Bokuto had woken up three days after the events at waterfront park. Kuroo, being the substitute,  _ Alpha-father _ of their pack, had remained at the hospital throughout. While he was personally worried about the owl’s damaged state, he was more invested because of the promise he had made to Keiji. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what his own head space would be like if he had been barred from visiting Kenma-- his life partner. That alone, was enough to keep him at the hospital, day and night until Bokuto awoke. He even had the mind to rent out out a cheap room near the basement of the building. While it was difficult for him to ignore his intense desire to return to his cat-like Omega, he knew that he had more important responsibilities. He had to be selfless.

_ Fuuuuuuuck...he missed having Daichi around. His captain had shouldered the burden of pack leader far better than he ever could. _

Kuroo periodically updated both Hajime, his eyes and ears on the ground of the yellow house, and Keiji via text messages. Most of the updates held little substance-- for the first couple of days, Bokuto’s doctors were mostly quiet on the boy’s condition. He  _ did _ learn that the owl had been put on an antitoxin medication, though he wasn’t sure which one exactly. He also knew that the doctors were taking great care to close Bokuto’s open wounds-- a standard procedure for all hospitalized Alphas. The worst update he had been forced to send off was on the owl’s unconscious state-- he had been told that his teammate was being kept in a medically induced coma. Hopefully, that would help to speed up his recovery process.

Ukai had dropped in on more than one occasion, scent coiling around, strained and stressed over the state of his unconscious student. Each time his coach came by, the two of them sat side by side in the waiting room, making small talk about the events at Waterfront-- particularly the bizarre happenings with Daichi.

Kuroo had quickly grown to hate the smell of the hospital. Unlike the Omega one, filled with sickening scents of fear and anxiety, the Alpha medical center was chalk full of aggression. Pure and chaotic Alpha aggression. It seemed to him that Alphas best translated their nervous energy through outward hostility-- something that he found extremely unproductive. He had witnessed more than his fair share of brawls while seated in the white waiting room. One of which, happened to include an Alpha doctor as the instigator of the fight, and had hospitalized two grieving females. Another, involving several visitors and a few nurses, had forced him to get involved as a intermediary-- to prevent the hostilities from spreading any further than they already had.

_ Christ, _ he mused after yet another altercation broke out to the left of him,  _ how the fuck did Alphas manage to get anything done? How on earth have we managed to build a functioning society with all of our instinctual fury and aggression? It’s a damn miracle that we haven’t killed each other off by now. _

Close to noon, on the third day, Kuroo and his coach were finally updated on Bokuto’s condition. At the news, his body was flooded with relief. He wanted to get the fuck out of the insane place and never come back. His nose hurt from breathing in such domineering scents over a prolonged period of time-- he missed Kenma’s calming fragrance.

Unfortunately, the doctor on staff had relayed that the cloud of Alpha spray had caused permanent damage to Bokuto’s right eye. Nonetheless, the man was adamant that the owl was lucky to have escaped with such a minor complication. The sheer amount of chemical that had entered Bokuto’s bloodstream, via his orifices and open wounds, had all but flooded his hemoglobin with toxins-- he was lucky that the poison hadn’t reached his heart. If that had been the case, he would have been transported out of the hospital in a coffin.

Kuroo, while relieved that his teammate was alive, was wary of reiterating the message to Keiji. He wasn’t sure how to break the news to the boy. Unbeknownst to him, Bokuto’s Omega excelled at emotional control. There was very little, save from the death of his Alpha or nestmates, that could rattle his unwavering conviction. After receiving the chipper text from Kuroo-- that Bokuto was alive and well, but had lost sight in his eye-- Keiji was elated. He didn’t care in the slightest about the permanent injury, he was simply thrilled to hear that his Alpha would be returning to him.

**Pack~**

Oikawa had first heard a much needed update on Suga’s unusual heat from his professor. She had woken him up with a very early phone call, the majority of which entailed him calming her rampant anger over the ‘absolutely useless’  _ Omega Outreach Program.  _ After hanging up the phone, he reiterated the happenings to Hajime while the two of them got ready for the school day. Hajime, after mulling over the strange ordeal during his morning shower, went downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. There, at the oak dining table, he sat down and ate his shiny apple next to Tanaka, who, by this point in time, had already heard about Suga’s long-lasting heat from Shoyo.

Shoyo had been privy to the information because Kenma had overheard the conversation between Oikawa and Hajime a half hour earlier-- he and Kuroo’s room was right next door and Oikawa’s voice had the kind of tone that carried. When he ran into Shoyo in the hallway, around fifteen minutes later, he mentioned the news in passing. Shoyo being nervous and talkative, had prattled on about it to Tanaka in the kitchen, the latter of which wanted nothing more than to focus his tired mind on organic biology-- he had a rather large test later on in the day.

Unfortunately, Tanaka’s before-test morning was once again interrupted by Hajime. While he was able to eat his breakfast in peace, with Hajime being his usual quiet, pensive self, the pair did discuss the absurdity of Suga’s heat at great length during their walk to school. After parting ways to head to their respective classes, Tanaka then reiterated what he knew to Bokuto and Yuji during anthropology 301. Thirty minutes later, Bokuto, who should been at home resting, had messaged Keiji for more information on the travelling gossip, which prompted the Omega to make an angry call to Oikawa about how he was left out of the loop-- even his Alpha had heard about things before he had.

Around lunch time, the news spread even further when Hajime, Kuroo, and Asahi met at the University gym. After the fight at waterfront park, all three boys had agreed that they needed to improve their physique if Alpha-on-Alpha altercations were to continue being the norm. Plus, they were about to enter a new season of volleyball, so the extra bit of exercise wouldn’t hurt. They made small talk as they worked out at various machines, mostly about Daichi’s jarring roar a few days prior. When they moved to the locker room to shower off and change, Hajime mentioned the new developments in passing. Asahi immediately messaged Nishinoya for more information-- and the latter boy quickly fired off a very angry text to Oikawa about how he had been left in the dark.

Kuroo, on the other hand, sat on the subject for the remainder of the school day, contemplating if Daichi should be told the news. When the final bell rang out, he had decided that his captain, more than anyone else in their pack, deserved to know was happening. Afterall, Kuroo knew that the man still cared deeply for the silver Omega.

**Daichi~**

When Kuroo had brought him news of Suga’s ongoing heat, he really wasn’t sure what to do with the information. He wasn’t Suga’s Alpha anymore. The two of them were hardly even acquaintances, they hadn’t spoken in two weeks. He stewed in his conundrum for hours before finally coming to the conclusion that it couldn’t hurt to get a few more facts on the subject. All things aside, he still cared to know how the Omega was doing, and he certainly didn’t like the idea of the poor boy suffering alone in a prolonged state of heat.

However, there was one problem-- he didn’t want to get any more information through the grapevine of their pack. When questioned, Kuroo had been unsure of most of the details. It had been more than a little infuriating for Daichi, he  _ needed _ to know the specifics. With that in mind, he decided that it would be best for him to go directly to the informational source. If he wanted to know what  _ exactly  _ was being done to alleviate Suga’s strange circumstances, he needed to speak to the Omega professor.

He contemplated calling the woman on the phone, or even firing her a casual text message, but quickly shot the idea down. In order to bolster his confidence for going to see the professor directly, he came up with a series of rather convoluted assumptions. In reality, he was trying to find a decent lie that might cover up his desire to see Suga in person.

_ Miyo might not answer his call because his number wasn’t saved in her phone. Afterall, he himself often avoided unknown numbers... _

_ She might be suspicious of his concern because, without seeing his face in person, she wouldn’t know that it was genuine... _

_ She might not answer her phone because, maybe, she kept the device on silent at all times... _

Truly ridiculous notions, but he did well to pretend that they weren’t.  _ He was just making a...normal house call to see a house advisor. Completely normal. Nothing wrong with that at all. _

He arrived at Miyo’s quaint home at exactly six in the evening. He dismounted his green bicycle and took in a heavy breath of air, tanned features glowing in the evening sun. Ukai had allowed his to use the shotty bike as a means to get to and from classes. While it was rusty and old, it was better than walking from his coach’s home-- situated outside of the traditional campus.

After taking in another nervous breath, he gingerly leaned the bicycle against the brown siding of the small bungalow, then hiked up the cement stairs. Before he had even finished rapping on the heavy door, it opened up to Miyo’s beaming face. She was still beautiful, in a pale, delicate sort of way-- though the porcelain features of her face still retained heavy bruising and her damaged nose was covered over with white packing.

“Daichi!” She exclaimed, voice somewhat nasally, and pulled him into a motherly embrace. “What a pleasant surprise!” She quickly spared a glance over her shoulder, to the well-lit entryway behind her, then moved outside to stand beside him on the small porch and closed the door. “Here, why don’t we go around back, hm? We’ve really worked out asses off to keep Suga’s scent under wraps, but I’m sure that it would still irritate your instincts a bit. You are rather young and virile, afterall!” She chirped with a sly wink, and reached for his arm to guide him back down the front steps.

Daichi nodded, slightly stunned by the woman’s joyous energy, and stuttered out a late hello. Then, he allowed her to lead him around to the right side of the house. As they walked, with Miyo chattering away at his side, he admired the various plants that jutted out next to the siding-- they were very well taken care of and pleasant for him to smell.

“Here,” Miyo said as she opened the back gate ahead of them. “After you, my dear.”

Daichi stepped through the opening, with Miyo close behind, and found himself in a rather underwhelming backyard. Compared to the well-manicured front and side portions of the home, there was absolutely nothing unique about it. It was a medium sized area of well-kept grass, fenced in, with a wooden porch off to the side that was just large enough to hold a patio table and a small silver grill.

As if Miyo had heard his internal thoughts, she quickly prattled off again, flicking her small wrist in the air. “Excuse the plainness of it back here, I haven't found the time to do any sort of landscaping. I really want to put in a vegetable garden, but it's too late in the year for me to even bother anymore.”

“I keep telling her,” Ukai’s voice chimed in, luring Daichi’s attention towards the porch. His coach stepped onto the wooden panels, beer in hand, and closed the sliding door behind him. “That she’s not going to have time to tend to a damn vegetable garden. Especially now, with us taking care of all you kiddies. You guys have been nothing but trouble.”

“Oh you bite your tongue!” Miyo remarked with a huff, then hopped up onto the veranda with the kind of grace that only an Omega could possess. “Your father, bless his heart, is a wonderful gardener. It’s in your genes!”

“I  _ highly  _ doubt that,” Ukai drawled, plopping down on a metal patio chair. “I’m shit at taking care of living things. I had this plant once...”

Daichi tuned out his coach’s long-winded story about a poor house plant, mind wandering around the notion that the two professors had already found the time to meet each other's families. The last month had been absolute chaos, for everyone involved with their yellow house, including their advisors.

_ They really were serious...they really were mates now. Fuuuuuuck...that reminded him of Suga. _

Miyo’s melodic voice pulled him back to the present and he shook his head to assert himself. “Daichi, come, come and sit down here,” she sang, taking a seat next to her lounging mate. “Do you need anything? A drink? A snack? A-”

“I’m fine,” Daichi interrupted with a warm, yet nervous smile. “Really, professor, but thank you!”

“Well, you let me know! And…” Miyo said, her tone shifting to a more serious note. “I assume you’re here about Suga? I can’t think of any other reason you’d bike all the way here!”

Daichi inwardly cringed, taking a hesitant seat across from the raven woman.  _ Shit, why did he decide to come in person again? Did he even have a right to be there? Was it weird for him to be there? It was weird, right? _

“Oh, stop it,” Miyo continued, smelling his ashamed state. She poked him playfully in the arm and flashed him a white smile. “You’re fine. Pull back that worried scent. I’m pleased that you’re here, actually. I could use a break from taking care of the damn kid, so it’s a happy coincidence that you’ve come over this evening!”

Daichi was taken back by the comment. “I’m…” He began, then furrowed his brows, trying to figure out if the raven woman was alluding to what he  _ thought _ she was alluding to. “I’m sorry...but...um...I just came by to see if he was okay. I didn’t mean to insinuate any-”

“Daichi,” Miyo interjected with another comforting smile that spread warmth to his tired mind. “It’s fine. You’re fine, being here. I assume that you want a bit of information about what’s going on? I’m sure that rumors had spread through your little pack after my conversation with Oikawa this morning. The kid really can’t keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately...though...there’s not much more that I can tell you, aside from what I assume you already know. Suga’s been in heat for four days now. And…” She faltered, her scent growing extremely restless and vengeful.

“This,  _ Omega Outreach Line,”  _ Ukai said, picking up where his agitated mate left off. “They’re kind of...absolute shit. Apparently, they won’t send aid until the heat period has more than doubled. And I pay into them with my damn taxes. Momo can only do so much...damn doctors are expensive.”

Miyo ground her teeth together, visibly angered by what Ukai had reiterated. “As if  _ four days  _ isn’t enough proof for them…” She trailed off, glancing towards the back door of her home with misty eyes. “The poor boy…I can’t even imagine...he’s...it sucks. It just...really sucks.”

“Mmm,” Ukai murmured in agreement, absentmindedly sipping on his beer can. “Four fucking days…”

For a moment, there was pensive silence and Daichi wracked his brain for something to fill it with. He hadn’t come to Miyo’s home to see Suga _...right? _ He had only been interested in getting a bit of information on the silver boy’s health _...right? _

_ Shit, _ he weighed as he shook a nervous knee on the porch,  _ maybe he had misstepped in coming here. _ Reflecting upon his decision, he realized that he should have called Hajime to find out more, or even Oikawa. That would have been more socially correct for him to do. Yet here he was, at the very location he knew that Suga was staying at. What Alpha in the same circumstances, and in their right mind, would choose to torture themselves by visiting an Omega.

_ Visiting an Omega that had openly rejected them _ .

_ Oh, and don’t forget, one that’s in goddamn heat. _

Even from the porch, he could pick up on subtle hints of Suga’s sweet scent. While the fragrance did well to rile up his sleepy instincts a bit, it roused his mournful sadness a lot more.

“Daichi…” Miyo said softly, looking at him with unblinking, emerald eyes. “Why don’t you go inside and talk to him?”

_ Wh...what? Had she gone mad? There was so much wrong with that lighthearted suggestion! _ For one, Suga was in heat, and he was a damn Alpha. Secondly, what would Suga even be able to say to him? The silver boy had been in the throes of it for four days now! On the off chance, the very off chance, that his mind had not lost itself in a lustful fervor right away, it certainly would have by now.

“I don’t think that-” Daichi began in protest, but was, once again, cut short.

“If you’re worried that he won’t be able to say anything useful in his current state, you’d be wrong,” Ukai lazily offered before taking another hearty sip of his beer. “He’s actually pretty damn lucid, given the circumstances. It’s kind of impressive. Miyo was an absolute mess when we were going at in her-”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Miyo remarked, slapping her mate on the arm, her face flushing crimson. “I think Daichi gets it. No need to go into the details of-”

“I  _ like _ the details,” Ukai grumbled and Daichi wanted to vomit. “Remember when-”

“Ukai!”

Daichi didn’t like imagining his coach... _ doing...gross. _ He lived with the fucking guy, when he wasn't holed up at Miyo's house. However, everything that was said  _ before  _ entering the unwanted territory of his professor's heat, Daichi  _ had _ heard, loud and clear. He just had no fucking clue what he was supposed to do with that information.

_ So what, Suga was able to have a somewhat lucid conversation? How was that supposed to help him? _ Regardless, anything shared between them, words or otherwise, would be heavily influenced by the Omega's heat. It wouldn’t be genuine.

“Suga’s always had a good reign on his mind, he’s very measured, even in heat,” Miyo continued, patting Ukai on the thigh with a delicate hand. “You two should talk. It’s long overdue, don’t you think? Especially after what happened earlier this week...at the park.”

_ Yeah, he had done his best to forget about all of that. _ In fact, there wasn’t much for him  _ to  _ forget in the first place-- the entire memory of it felt like a foggy dream.

“I really don’t know if-” He tried to explain, but was quickly cut off again-- he was growing rather used to it.

“Well I  _ do  _ think,” Miyo chided, suddenly rising to steady feet. “And I’m older than you, therefore, I am wiser than you! So you should listen to what I have to say!”

When Ukai sluggishly rose to his feet as well, setting his now-empty can down on the glass patio table, Daichi’s mind devolved into confusion.

_ Hold on. Wait a second. Hold on. What...what the fuck was happening….are they...are we going somewhere? _

As raven professor continued to blabber on about various reasons why she was right and he was wrong, he hesitantly rose up from his own chair. Then, Miyo and his coach hopped down from the porch, landing softly on the grass before him. His brown eyes grew wider and he followed them to the edge of the veranda, chest constricting with a surge of panic.

_ Where...no no no….where were they going… _

“Where are you-” He tried to ask, breathing out shaky breaths of air.

“Daichi hush!” Miyo interrupted, wagging a painted nail. Then, she and Ukai rounded to corner of the porch-- swiftly moving towards the wooden gate at the side of the bungalow. “There’s plenty to eat, you can use our video on demand if you’d like, and there’s another spare bedroom in the basement. If you need it, if course!”

Daichi couldn’t seem to close his agape mouth-- too flummoxed with what the two professors were attempting to do to him. He nodded, stunned in place as his eyes darted between them.

_ Were they...were they going to leave him there? Wait a second- _

“So that settles it!” Miyo chirped, flinging open the gate with a beaming smile-- her emerald eyes simultaneously mischievous and victorious. “We shall return tomorrow morning, then. If you change your mind, give coach Ukai here a call. Or me. Or whoever!” She declared before striding off to the side of the house, out of Daichi’s line of sight.

Daichi’s wide eyes flickered to his coach, beseeching the man for help, but he received only a hesitant smile in return:

_ Sorry, kid. When it comes to the Omegas, she’s the boss. _

_ No, no, no, no,  _ he internally panicked as Ukai turned to close the gate behind them, leaving him alone in the backyard-- stunned on the porch with a gobsmacked look on his tanned face.

He wanted to run after them, to tell them to come back because  _ he _ was going to be the one to leave, but couldn’t find the will to do so. Perhaps a part of him, small and buried deep down inside his gut, wanted the opportunity to speak with Suga-- to speak with the boy while he was in a heated state. Unlike Alphas, Omegas seemed to have a hearty grip on their animalistic nature. So much so that they could choose to completely box them away whenever they saw fit. Alphas should be so lucky. Daichi was very familiar with the instinctual voice inside his head, but he wasn’t sure that Suga could say the same. Omega instincts seemed to only take full control during their bouts of heat, and he wasn’t sure if Suga had even had one since his initial burst of it as a teeneger. If that was the case, the boy was definitely out of touch with his animalistic nature.

Daichi knew in his heart that the Suga’s Omega instincts were drawn to his Alpha spirit. In fact, he was absolutely certain of it. He could feel it in the marrow of his bones. Perhaps, if he spoke to the silver boy while he was in the throes of heat, Daichi could see a more honest side of him-- he wouldn’t be able to shove away his Omega desire so readily this time.

Unfortunately, that notion created a rather difficult conflict inside of Daichi’s mind. On one hand, he wanted to reject Suga himself. He wanted to show the boy just how much he had been hurt by their break-- show him that instinctual rejection was the most abhorrent thing a person could do to another. On the other hand, he still wished for the two of them to be together. He wanted them to be mates, but he knew that Suga, no matter how lucid, was in no position to make such a life-altering decision.

_ Motherfucker. _

His professors had really forced him into an unwanted and excruciatingly painful position. Admittedly, he had kind of let them do it.

_ Fuck. _

He ground his teeth together and sat down on the porch, swinging his long legs over the green grass. Around him, the autumn breeze tusselled his brown hair and swirled Suga’s scent into his open nostrils. He sighed deeply, expelling all of the air from his lungs before inhaling again and closing his eyes. There were three things he needed to do before he grew the balls to go inside the house. First, he needed to make sure he had a heavy grip on his feral nature-- no accidental mating. That would be the absolute worst thing he could do to the silver Omega. Second, he needed to ensure that the sadistic side of him, the side that wanted to see Suga suffer the same pain of rejection that he had, was completely extinguished from his mind. Third, he needed to stamp out the small flicker of hope that had grown inside his chest after being left to his own devices-- he and Suga were not going to be together, no matter the circumstances.

Suga had already shattered his world. He had no desire to get his hopes up, only to go through the same thing again a second time.

**Ukai~**

As Ukai drove his yellow car through the neighborhood streets, towards his own house, he breathed in bucket loads of Miyo’s tussling scent. Regardless of how his mate felt, he was still immensely concerned about what they had just done-- a fact that was not lost on her.

“What?” Miyo asked, a few minutes into his internal stewing. “What are you thinking?”

“It’s just…” He began, pondering how to best breach the subject. “Do you think we made that right decision? Leaving Daichi there...with Suga in heat. It seems...irresponsible.”

Miyo hummed, looking out the passenger window at the quiet houses beyond. “I think you mean to say...do you think that  _ you  _ made the right decision,” she replied in almost a whisper before snapping her gaze forward-- her features calm and resolute. “It was my decision...so it’s also my burden. But, I’m grateful that you went along with it. I know I didn't give you much notice.”

Ukai reached a blind hand to feel for his mate’s thigh, giving it a tough squeeze of assurance. “Of course. This is your nest we’re talking about here. You’ve been making decisions for them long before I came around.”

“Yes...but it’s also your pack,” Miyo pointed out, humming under her breath. “So, seriously, thank you for supporting me. I know it’s not easy to sit back and go along with it.”

“Are you worried?” Ukai questioned, changing the subject as he raised an eyebrow in his mate’s direction.

Miyo sighed deeply and Ukai scrunched his nose as her forlorn scent swirled about the cabin. “Of course I am. But...okay...here’s my thought process,” she began, rolling down her window a crack to bring in a bit of fresh air.

Ukai was pretty sure that he already knew her thought process-- that’s why he had gone along with their leave in the first place. If he was correct in his thinking, then his mate was taking on a heavy burden...and a heavy risk. He was simultaneously filled with admiration for her emotional strength, and worry over the potential outcomes.

“Four things could happen, right?” His mate continued, flickering her emerald eyes around in their sockets as she thought about it. “They could talk and come to some sort of an agreement where they decide to get back together,” she paused, holding up her hand to count on her fingers. “They could talk and decide that they can never be together, but part on amicable terms. They could talk...and decide that they absolutely detest each other...which I really hope doesn’t happen...”

“Mmm,” Ukai murmured his agreement, gently squeezing the woman’s thigh again as a show of support.

“Or, maybe, Daichi chickens out and they don’t talk at all,” she paused, grabbing her phone from the cupholder to check for new messages. “Or...I guess in the worst case scenario, or maybe best case scenario? They end up mating.”

_ That...that was exactly what he was concerned about. How would Suga react when he found out that his professor was almost completely at fault for he and Daichi’s coupling? _

“I can smell your worry,” Miyo softly remarked and Ukai internally cringed-- he didn’t want her to think that he  _ wasn’t _ in support of her decisions. They were still new in their relationship, he didn’t know where her buttons were, nor her his.

“It’s just…” He began, trying to choose his thoughts carefully.

Miyo hummed, poking him in the cheek with a playful finger. “You’re really worried about what you say around me, hey?”

Ukai cringed again, this time outwardly.

“Don’t be,” his mate chirped and, when he remained silent, her eyes widened and she laughed. “Seriously! You’re my partner! If you can’t be honest with me then, christ, who can?”

Ukai sighed, but couldn’t help but chuckling-- her laughter was contagious. “Okay, okay. It’s just, what if they do mate and Suga is...I don’t know...crushed? What happens when he finds out that you’re pretty much responsible for it? I mean, mating is for life.” When Miyo flashed him a skeptical look and he quickly corrected himself. “Okay, but  _ most _ of the time, it’s for life.”

Miyo’s smile faded, but her scent remained strong and unyielding. “He’ll hate me. He’ll probably never want to speak to me again…” She trailed off and Ukai’s heart nearly broke at the disheartening tone of her voice. “But...but I know that I’ve made the right decision. I  _ know  _ it. If I sent Daichi away...if I stayed out of it and let Suga slide into oblivion...then I would regret it for the rest of my life. Daichi is...he’s  _ wonderful _ . I’ve heard it from every one of our students, Suga included. And I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I mean, just look at what happened at the park…how he protected Suga...even though he wasn’t his to look after? I mean, given everything we know, how the fuck did he even know to show up in the first place?”

“Mmm,” Ukai hummed, contemplating the bizarre actions of his team captain. “That was something else. I can’t argue there.”

Miyo nodded her agreement. “He’s a caring and patient Alpha...no...a caring and patient  _ person.  _ Just like you are. You’re both so...good. Was I supposed to just ignore the fact that fate had just dropped the kid in our lap tonight? I  _ know _ that I’ve made the right decision. I don’t know how I know it, but I do. It’s almost...instinctual. I can feel it in my bones. And if Suga hates me for what I’ve done...then I’ll just have to learn how to live with it. It will hurt,  _ fuck _ it will hurt, but at least I won’t hate myself for leaving him to his own... _ stupidity _ .”

“I think the word you meant to use is  _ independence." _

“Okay, fine. But there's such a thing as been  _ too  _ self-reliant. Almost to the point of self destruction.”

This time, it was Ukai's turn to flash Miyo a skeptical look.

“Yes, yeeeeeeeeeees,” she conceded with a wave of her delicate hand. “ _ I'm one to talk.” _

Ukai chuckled. “You know, I'm really not liking all of the companions you're drawing between our relationship, and the relationship between two of our  _ young  _ students.”

“I guess that's proof that it takes a long time for people to learn how to grow up.”

“Mmm. Do we ever learn?”

While it was painful to think about his mate being rejected by a member of her own nest-- by someone she considered as her own child-- Ukai understood that her decision was made from a place a motherly care. It was imposing and dictating, sure, but also maternal and kind. She alone had taken on the responsibility of Suga and Daichi’s emotional happiness. Regardless of how things went, if they two boys broke apart forever or chose to mate, she had already prepared herself to suffer the consequences.

_ Christ, he hoped to all hell that everything was going to work out for the best. _


	59. Promises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: a more in depth look on the Suga/Daichi resolution + a lil bit of smut ;)
> 
> Also, if anyone is interested, the song I kept coming back to while I was writing this is:
> 
> \--------------------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVnAPWSpoDw
> 
> I know random links can stress people out (they stress me out), sooooo if you're unsure of what it is, the song is trancey/melodic and isn't a music video!
> 
> As always, beware of spelling errors! AND THANK YOU FOR GREAT AND INSIGHTFUL COMMENTS!

**Chapter Fifty Nine: Promises**

**Suga~**

Suga only knew that he had been in heat for four days because Miyo had told him so. Or at least, he was  _ pretty sure _ that Miyo had mentioned it. Admittedly, he was having trouble telling the difference between dreams and reality in his haze. Time was a disorienting mess for him. He couldn’t help but bring himself to climax hundreds of times, even though he knew that it was all but useless. He would get no relief from his fingers alone.

He hadn’t gone through heat since his very first bout as a teenager, and fuck, he prayed to whatever god had the time to listen that he would never have to go through another one again. He had forgotten just how agonizing the entire ordeal was-- forgotten that there was such a thing as feeling  _ too  _ much pleasure. He felt like every nerve ending in his body was chalk full of built up electricity. He couldn’t bear the feel of clothing. When the fabric rubbed up against him, even just a little bit, it felt like someone was going in on his skin with bristly toothbrush. It was supremely agitating to a maddening degree and, the more it happened, the more sore his skin became. He had shed his clothing the very second he had been settled inside of Miyo’s guest room, and it wasn’t long before he had the mind to strip the bed of all covers, save from the base sheet that clung to the mattress.

For days, he laid atop to stripped bed, tossing and turning as his head swam around of a pit instinctual desires. At first, they had kept all of their focus on his need to be filled-- his need for an Alpha knot inside his aching sex. He imagined presenting himself to an Alpha as he used his fingers to fill his soaked hole, but it was never enough. He had even raided Miyo’s guest bath in a feverish frenzy, looking for objects that were of similar size and shape to an Alpha cock. They didn’t help, either. His body still burned on with the same intensity, only now, both he and his bed were coated in his own sweat and cum.

Somewhere along the line, perhaps a few hours into his heat, or maybe even days-- he really didn’t know for certain-- his instincts began to shift their attention away from generic libido. They turned their moaning sights inwards, raking over his recent life choices with a fine tooth comb that hurt his brain. His lustful cravings still remained, but they were now accompanied by a vengeful, bitter inner voice. One that seemed to gain a lot of pleasure from tearing into his conscious mind.

More specifically, from tearing into his decision to reject Daichi as his mate.

He had battled with the inner voice, his Omega instincts, long before his heat had come to pass, but they had been more muted then. Admittedly, he had almost lost out to them once before, but Miyo, and a bit of much needed sleep, had helped snap him back to his senses. In his current state, heat-bound and disoriented by animalistic lust, he was utterly powerless against them-- and they were very, very angry with him.

Although his mind had been a foggy mess throughout, he still retained some memory of the events at Waterfront park. He knew that Keiji and his other nestmates had made some snap decision that had saved him early on in his heat. He also remembered smelling a ton of feral Alphas, as well as the scent of metal and earth, and a bit of Alpha spray. He didn’t really recall any of his time spent inside the maintenance shed, other than a few lingering images of Keiji’s frantic voice. He did, however, remember every single millisecond, in great detail, after hearing Daichi’s incapacitating roar.

And his Omega nature was  _ more _ than happy to torture him with  _ those _ memories.

In all their rage and sadistic humor, they saw fit to replay the happenings, over and over inside his mind’s eye until he was at the brink of insanity. He really wasn’t sure what was worse-- touching himself to images of Daichi saving him. To the Alpha he had rejected, possessively roaring out for him. Or, touching himself to mental images of the Daichi's heartbreaking smile-- the silent acknowledgment that they would never be together.

_ You know what that smile said? _ His instincts whispered inside his skull as his pushed his shaking fingers deeper inside of his own, aching sex. He already knew the answer. He had known it since the very moment he had seen the forlorn expression on Daichi’s face. The realization had even brought tears to his eyes, and he had called out to the Alpha through his heated haze. He had tried to explain that he was wrong, and that he wanted them to be together, but Daichi had all but ignored him-- shuffling him inside Miyo’s car without a second look. The Alpha didn’t even want him anymore. The man couldn’t forgive everything he had done to ruin them.

“No...no,” he whispered out loud, pleading for his instincts to stop their mindful torture. He couldn’t bear to hear it-- couldn’t bear to hear the truth.

_ It said...I wish that you were mine to hold, but you’ve ruined everything. It’s over between us, forever. You saw to that. _

“Stop it...just stop... _ please,”  _ he whined out into the mattress, warm tears coating the stained sheet beneath his face. His body was a frenzied pool of passion, but his gut felt like a hard stone of guilt and regret. The conflicting emotions were tearing him to shreds, bit by bit.

_ Look at what you’ve done. You’ve made an absolute fool of us...now we’re not worthy of an Alpha like him. _

Suga hiccuped, a combination of a lustful moan and a heavy sob from deep within his chest-- they were right. “Enough... _ please _ ...that’s enough...please STOP.”

_ You’re not worthy of a man like him. _

As his Omega instincts murmured out the hostile remark, Suga climaxed, spilling his seed onto the stained mattress beneath his sweaty stomach. He momentarily relaxed, quivering as his orgasm subsided, then the lustful burning started up again with a vengeance. With it, came yet another round of mental torture. On and on it went, until his sobs were no longer accompanied by tears-- his body too worn to produce them anymore.

No matter how hard he pleaded against his Omega instincts, they refused to let up. His conscious mind knew that they were correct, that he shouldn’t have rejected the one person he held closest to his beating heart, yet they still pushed onward with their whispering tortures. His agony continued, right up to the very moment he heard a heavy knock at his door-- accompanied by the sweetest, most intoxicating fragrance that he had ever smelled in his life. His Omega instincts called out to the nearby Alpha that was  _ oh so familiar _ , clamoring for the source of the perfect, masculine scent.  

_ Their salvation. His salvation. At long last, an end to his suffering. _

**Daichi~**

“Daichi... _ please,”  _ Suga begged, his hoarse voice ringing out from beyond the door, cracked and dry. “I can’t...I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.  _ PLEASE.” _

Every part of Daichi’s body wanted to break through the wooden barrier between them and claim Suga as his own, but he forced himself to think clearly. He had stayed outside on the back veranda for nearly an hour, repeating his internal mantras to steady his own conviction. Suga had made it very clear that things between them were finished. He had to respect that. Even his own instincts, in all their fury, had made it clear that the two of them were done. The stars just didn't pan out and, while it was tragic, he was coming to accept that they were never going to be together. He knew, deep down that he had to respect the Omega’s wishes, even if he believed them to be wrong.

“I take back everything I said! Okay? Okay?!” Suga pleaded in a frantic voice that pulled at Daichi’s heartstrings. His Omega was in obvious emotional pain, and perhaps even physical pain with his heat lasting at long as it had. His instincts wanted to quell that agony, but Daichi shoved them back with everything he had. “Please...end this for me...I can’t keep doing this. It hurts...Daichi...it hurts,” Suga continued, his voice half-moan, half-sob.

Daichi nearly punched through the door, hearing the pleading words, desperate and fanatical, coming from the other side. He closed his fists at his sides, white knuckles flexing until they felt like they were about to pop. He wouldn’t allow Suga to make a life changing decision from such an emotionally damaged place.

_ He wouldn’t. _

_ He couldn’t...could he? _

_ Fuck...NO! _ He internally barked at his sneaky instincts, beginning to coil around in his brain with their desires, and shook his head to reassert his conscious control. Suddenly, he realized that he was mere moments from slipping into a pool of his eager feral nature. He thought that he would have more time-- more time to talk some sense into Suga and plea his case. Instead, he had just stood there, in front of the door, without uttering a single word.

His feral nature reared its head again and, for a brief moment, Daichi saw disorienting stars. This version of his instincts was different than the ones that had taken control of him at Waterfront. These ones were wild, barbaric even, in their desire to lay a claim on the Omega just a few meters away from him. In that moment, Daichi finally understood everything that had happened to him, four days earlier at Waterfront. In Miyo's home, Suga was safe. Inside the brown bungalow, there was no risk of him being claimed by another Alpha. Here and now, there was no need to prioritize the Omega's welfare over Daichi's own animalistic needs. Here and now, his instincts could set their sights on claiming what they felt was rightfully theirs.

Understanding that, Daichi immediately decided that he needed to leave the vicinity. He would have to leave Suga to his own, painful devices, before his feral nature had the chance to snap out and do something that they would both regret.

As if Suga had heard the internal thoughts, his strained voice carried through the door once more. It was dripping with lust and unbent desperation. “Please don’t go… _ please.  _ I need you here...I  _ need _ you with me. _ ” _

_ HE NEEDS US,  _ Daichi’s instincts snapped out, biting chunks of his conscious mind away in their eagerness. Suga’s intoxicating scent coyly seeped through the towels stacked around the door and fluttered up his dry nostrils-- the final nail in the coffin for his brief internal conflict. Fight back as he did, his mind suddenly exploded into a million different pieces, scattering the logical side of him to the wind. He plowed through the oak door, breaking through the lock with a abrupt burst of strength. His void-like eyes, black and savage, narrowed at the sight of the Omega near the stripped bed-- naked and quivering in a pool of slick. He crossed the messy room in milliseconds, yanked the smaller boy up by the wrists, and pushed him hard against the wall-- pinning his small hands high above his body.

With his free hand, Daichi lined up his pulsing cock with Suga's dripping sex and ungracefully shoved the full length inside. Suga moaned into the plaster as he roughly thrust from behind, setting a vicious and forceful pace. His conscious mind quickly clouded over with a fog of instinctual fury-- destructive and vengeful in its quest for ownership. All of his previous resignations over Suga’s decisions burst out at the seams of his mind, translating into uncharacteristically harsh actions. He had always wanted their coupling to be tender and gentle, but he had spent the last two weeks suppressing his resentment for the silver boy. Now, with Suga’s overbearing fragrance rousing his feral nature, he couldn’t hold the bitter emotion in check any longer.

He leaned in close to Suga’s scent glands, not to smell as he so often had in the past, but to lay an unnecessary claim that was both painful and animalistic. He  _ needed _ to mark his Omega. He  _ needed _ a physical imprint on the boy that would ground his frantic thoughts in reality-- something to show that Suga was  _ his _ and that the Omega could never leave him again. The conscious side of Daichi knew that it was a ridiculous notion, but that fleeting thought was all but lost to his distraught feral nature.

_ His Alpha instincts wanted visible signs of ownership...and he couldn’t refuse them. _

_ He wanted those signs, too. _

He grazed his white teeth over the soft flesh between Suga's neck and shoulder, then bit down hard on the pale skin. Crimson blood quickly pooled inside his mouth, coating his tongue with its metallic warmth. He didn't even care to lap at the fresh wound to ensure that it would heal quickly. Instead, he moved a few inches to the left and did the same thing again, this time harder and accompanied by a vicious thrust of his cock. Suga moaned against the plaster in front of them, both in pain and pleasure, but the sound didn’t register in Daichi’s roaring ears.

He increased his one-handed grip on the Suga’s delicate wrists, throat rumbling in a constant loop of possession. Deep down, he knew that the Omega’s porcelain skin was going to bruise under his heavy grasp, but he didn't care in the slightest. His instincts were wild in their actions and he didn’t have the power to claw back to reality. He rammed his dick further inside Suga's moist hole, again and again, until he felt his knot begin to form deep inside. His Omega squirmed against him, grinding the thick cock deeper inside himself, and Daichi quickly spilled his seed from the heightened pleasure.

He let out a guttural roar as he climaxed-- half victorious, half upset. Everything between them felt carnal and emotionless-- he absolutely hated it. He hated it even more that he couldn’t prevent it from happening. There was no shared ecstasy between them as their scents intertwined together for eternity,  _ whooshing _ around them as they permanently coalesced. There was no mutual pleasure to be had when his instincts were in such a frantic state of desperation. His mind was too far gone in its Alpha fury. Too angry with the Omega’s previous rejection of him as a mate. Too far lost in Suga's rampant scent to retain even a single shred of control over his animalistic nature.

His cock only had a few moments to shrink down before it stood at full attention again-- influenced by the continued bout of Suga’s heat. He grit his teeth and roughly spun the boy around, taking a moment to look down at the quivering Omega through dilated pupils. Then, he hoisted Suga up against his body, wrapped his slender legs around his own hips, and slammed the boy's back against the wall.

Suga gasped a sudden breath of air, winded from the heavy impact, and clawed out at Daichi's broad shoulder blades. Still, he moaned out his lust and began to hump his stretched hole downwards for Daichi’s swollen cock-- hazel eyes wide and frenzied. Daichi snarled in the boy's ear, a guttural noise to assert some unnecessary dominance, and thrust his hips upwards to re-enter the slick sex with ease. He could feel his previously spilled seed sloshing around with each plunge and, each time he pulled his member out, it dribbled down to the hardwood beneath them in a pool of clear liquid.

Another distraught whine escaped Suga’s chapped lips as Daichi grazed his teeth along the boy's collar bones-- leaving scratchy trails of cut up flesh. He shoved his pulsing cock painfully deeper, instincts coiling around in a state of sheer madness, and bit down again. This time, on the side the boy’s tender scent glands. Almost immediately, his senses were assaulted with a more vigorous and pure wave of Suga’s powerful scent. The main source of which, being more of the boy's fragrant blood that pooled on his eager tongue.

_ Claim. Claim. Claim. _

_ More. More. More. _

His feral nature screeched at him, guttural and jarring inside his ears, and he pounded into his Omega with renewed intensity. He was desperate spend his seed inside of his mate again-- to mark the boy with more of his Alpha scent. Suga’s lithe body jutted up and down in his arms with each cruel thrust, narrow back bashing against the hard plaster behind him. He moaned out, sobbing without tears as Daichi’s cock hit up against the deepest point of his moist sex. Still, his heated scent swirled about in unchecked lust-- masking the pain.

Daichi still held no care for his aggressive hold on Suga’s lithe body, and he certainly didn’t feel the need to slow down for the boy’s sake. He was still so angry-- so  _ fucking _ angry with the Omega for ending things between them. He was enraged at the boy for betraying his trust.

He was furious-- furious with the Omega denying the soul-connection that they both knew they had shared.

He was resentful-- resentful of Suga for shattering their loving bond into a million pieces, and scattering it to the wind.

_Do not let him get away again..._ Daichi’s instincts whispered inside his brain, pushing him further into regions unchecked panic. He couldn't lose the silver Omega. _No, no, no, no, no!_ _Not again!_ His fragile heart wouldn’t hold up a second time. He would rather die than let that happen.

As he reared up to knot again, his teeth clamped down on the shallow flesh that covered his Omega’s heart-- claiming it as his own with white fangs. Almost immediately, Suga screamed out his agony and writhed around against Daichi’s tense body, clawing at his back with sharp nails. Daichi held him in place with strong arms and snarled into his ear-- commanding subservience.

When Daichi finally spilled his seed, the sheer volume of it filled Suga's raw sex to capacity. The remaining liquid dripped down the boy’s quivering legs and joined the puddle that was already on the floor. It wasn't long before Suga's heated scent spun away, leaving only lingering remnants in the hot air around them. Daichi abruptly dropped Suga down to the hardwood, as if he was discarding something away in a hurry, and turned to walk over to the bed. His mind was a cavern of foggy thoughts-- he knew that he needed to find himself again. He needed to untangle his conscious mind before anything more happened between them. If he was going to be successful, then he needed a bit of distance from his new mate-- if only for a moment.

He wasn't sure how long he laid there for, atop the bare mattress with a large hand over his brown eyes. Slowly but surely, the grey fog inside of his mind rolled back and his conscious thoughts rang through. His instincts were still roaring out their victory, but they were beginning to roll back in waves of new shame.

_ They had wanted to mate the silver Omega…but not like this. _

_ They had been forced into a frantic position...desperate to make the silver boy theirs...no matter the cost. _

_ And the cost had been great. _

Slowly, Daichi rolled his neck to the side and noticed that Suga had moved to lie on the bed a few feet over. He blinked away his how tears, eyes taking in the damage that had been done to the trembling figure. In that moment, he knew that he was every bit the monster he had so desperately tried not to be.

The slender Omega was curled up on his side, facing away, and Daichi took in a sharp breath when he saw the extent of the boy’s injuries. His pale back was smeared with dried blood and the angry wounds, running up from his shoulders to his neck, were still seeping the crimson liquid. His shoulder blades already retained the early markings of deep bruises from where Daichi had repeatedly slammed him into the plaster. His delicate wrists fared no better. Further down, the ring of his sex looked swollen and raw-- still dripping ample seed onto the white sheets beneath him.

Daichi rolled his head back to look up at the smooth ceiling, unable to stomach the sight any longer. He simultaneously wanted to vomit, run away, and sob. This wasn't at all what he had wanted. He had known that he wouldn’t be able to control his pent up rage-- he should have known better. He should never have come there. He should never have put himself in a position where Suga’s heated state could egg on his feral nature.

But the circumstances surrounding it no longer mattered, anymore. He  _ had  _ come there, of his own accord. The truth of the matter was, he had done his Omega harm. At that tragic thought, he ground his teeth together, nearly biting through his tongue in the process. He swallowed, tasting lingering remnants of Suga’s metallic blood and internally cringed. He hated himself, truly hated himself, for treating the silver boy in such a violent and careless manner. Warm tears pooled in his glassy eyes and he tried to blink them away again, but failed miserably. “Suga…” He whispered, his voice hoarse, and he brought his large hand back to his face, shielding his watery eyes in shame. “I…I’m...”

“It's okay…” Suga murmured in reply, still facing away. His body tensed, curling further in on itself as he spoke. “I knew…I knew what I was getting into...with all of this. I knew...how confused and angry you were. But I still...”

Daichi blinked slowly under his hand and a few stray tears rolled down his tense cheeks. “No. It’s not okay. I shouldn't have done that to you. I should never had touched you. Not...not like that. Not ever.”

He was internally torn by his actions. He knew that he never wanted to harm Suga in any way, yet his instincts, in all their fury, had. He knew that he should of had a better handle on them, but he had done everything in his power, and still they were able to take control of him. Ultimately, he should never have come to Miyo’s house in the first place. That was the true mistake.

“No...it's...it's not your fault,” he heard Suga whisper with a subtle hitch of breath. “It’s mine. It’s my fault. I did this. I did all of this to us. I ruined everything.”

“No, this is my fault...your...what I’ve done to you. It doesn't matter what the circumstances were,” Daichi affirmed quietly, his tone stern, as he squeezed his fingers into his wet sockets. His utterly dejected scent swirled into the air and he didn't have the energy to stop it. He _was_ dejected. He was a monster. “You don't do this kind of shit to the people that you love.”

**Suga~**

“No, this is my fault,” Suga heard Daichi whisper from behind him in a gut-wrenching tone-- and his scent was even worse. Suga wanted to hold his breath to avoid picking up the dejected scent with his nostrils. “It doesn’t matter what the circumstances were. You don’t do this kind of shit to the people that you love.”

_ He was right. You weren’t supposed to do these kinds of things to the people that you loved. You weren’t supposed to push them away without a sound reason. You weren’t supposed to stamp out their heart and move on as if nothing had ever happened. _

_ And you definitely weren’t supposed to expect them to come back after everything...and pretend like things could go back to normal. _

Daichi’s fingers burrowed harder into his sockets and Suga rolled over to face him, just in time to notice a few, slow tears trickle down to his tense jaw. He hadn’t noticed while they were mating, but Daichi’s tanned face was completely worn. There were dark circles beneath his eyes and the lines in his face were hollow. He looked utterly exhausted-- both mentally, and physically. Suga wondered if his own face held the same, wearied look.

“We shouldn’t have done this…” The Alpha murmured, more to himself than to Suga. “This was a mistake...look what happened…this was a mistake.”

Suga’s heart jutted inside his chest and he slowly rolled his aching body up to a seated position-- ignoring the screaming wounds on his shoulders. Hesitantly, he moved a slender hand towards his Alpha and delicately placed it over the man’s chest. His narrow shoulders slumped down in shame when Daichi’s body flinched from his touch. He grimaced, feeling another sob hitch inside his throat, but slightly calmed when he felt the Alpha’s beating heart-- rumbling like thunder at his fingertips. “I...I know who you are,” he whispered, curling his nails into Daichi’s skin as fresh tears fell over his long lashes. “I know what kind of person you are and...and everything that happened today...it’s not going to change that perception.”

“It’s not enough,” Daichi whispered in reply, confusing Suga with the ambiguous words. “I’m not enough for you. I’m never going to be enough for you...and now we’re stuck together. After...after the things I’ve just done...after everything I’ve done to you. We’re...stuck together.”

Suga’s eyes filled to the brim, intensely blurry from the sullen words. He let out a small hiccup of a sob and curled his nails further into Daichi’s tanned skin. “You’re wrong. I...I...you  _ are _ enough. You’ve always been enough. I...I should never have…” He trailed off, unsure of what he could say to fix their damaged relationship. “I’m...we’re  _ people. _ That’s all we are. Alpha...Omega...it doesn’t matter. We’re all just people. I should’ve understood that sooner. I should have been strong enough to be with you in the first place. Everything felt so...wrong...when I broke things off. I…”

Daichi took in a deep breath and slowly moved his large hand away from his face. His brown eyes were puffy, focused in on the ceiling above them. “I should leave…” He whispered, almost to himself, yet made no move to get up. “I should go…”

At the quiet suggestion, Suga felt his entire body tense up with a sudden rush of anxiety. If his mate left now, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep his mind from fracturing into a million pieces. He was barely holding it together as it was. He understood, truly understood, that he was the one who had ruined things between them. His Alpha wanting to leave, that was his own fault. No matter what Daichi said, no matter how many times the man denied it, it wouldn’t stop it from being the truth.

“Please…” He murmured, his voice soft and wavering with stress. “Please don’t leave.”

He wished that the pleading words had stayed inside his head. Daichi didn’t owe him anything anymore-- he didn’t deserve to have the man’s company.

Daichi’s eyes remained locked on the ceiling, unblinking. “I should,” he replied and, hearing the sharp tone, Suga was almost certain that he meant the words in a vindictive sort of way.

Again, Suga couldn’t blame the Alpha. _Maybe...he deserved to be left behind._ He had been unable to see the value of a man like Daichi-- of an Alpha that openly wanted to help him make the world a better place to Omegas. He had been too fixed on the idea, on the stereotype, that all Alphas were troublesome and naturally domineering creatures. For a moment, he stewed in with Daichi’s obvious rejection of their bond, swallowing down fresh waves of anxiety. It took a few minutes of unbearable silence before a more hopeful thought flickered across his tired mind. He grabbed onto it with all his might, holding it close to his heart as he slowly blinked away his drying tears.

He  _ could _ let his Alpha walk away forever...or he could fight to win back his shattered trust. He could fight with all his might to repair it.

“Daichi…” He whispered, inhaling deep breaths to calm his unsteady nerves. “Will you...can I say something?”

He allowed Daichi to have a few moments of creeping silence, all the while praying the the Alpha would allow him his small request. Thankfully, Dachi did.

“Okay…”

Suga’s mouth set in a hard line at Daichi’s exhausted tone and he shuffled back, leaning against the copper headboard of the bed to look of in the distance. He was as ready as he was ever going to get. There wasn’t any time left for him to be unsure-- Daichi was already contemplating leaving him. If he was going to fight to keep his Alpha, he was going to have to start now. “I fucked up,” he whispered, then repeated the words again with more conviction. “I was so absorbed in my own world that I didn’t think about the people around me. I didn’t think about how the people around me could actually _help_ me achieve things. And I didn’t think about how they...how you might be hurt by my...ambitions,” he paused and went through a quick mental checklist. He was going to have to make sure that Daichi understood that his words were his own if he was going to gain any ground. “None of what I’m saying, or going to say, is from a place of heat. It’s passed...I’m lucid...these are my words, and my words alone.

Daichi hummed out his understanding and, after smelling the Alpha’s hesitant, yet accepting scent, Suga continued. “I regretted my decision... _fuck_ I regret it. I should never have broken things between us. I regretted it from the second it first came out of my mouth. You deserved better...you  _ deserve _ better. You deserve better than an idiot like me. And I know that we’re stuck together now...and that it’s my fault-”

“It’s not,” Daichi whispered in interruption-- his desolated scent pouring out in fresh waves of intensity. “It's not your fault. I came here of my own volition. I shouldn’t have. I thought I would be able to control myself...to control my instincts... _ fuck. _ It seems so stupid when I say it out loud.”

Suga paused, keeping his hazel eyes away from the Alpha lying next to him. He couldn’t bear to look at the man whose heart he had broken. He was ashamed of himself. “Regardless…” He lamented, wanting to disagree with the man, but keeping his mouth shut. “We’re...we’re mated now. And I know that it’s not how you imagined it going...it’s not how I imagined it, either. But…” He trailed off and took in another unsteady breath of air, doing his best to ignore Daichi’s strained fragrance. “I’m...I’m so fucking relieved. I feel... _ whole _ ...again. I know that our bond is distorted but I’m going to work everyday, for the rest of my  _ goddamn _ life if I have to, to fix it. I’m going to prove to you that I want to be your mate. That...that I’m worthy of you...and of your trust.”

For the next few minutes, the two boys sat in a melancholy silence. Suga could smell, and almost  _ feel,  _ Daichi shuffle through a series of bleak emotions-- from anger to confusion, contemplation to self-reflection. He kept his own thoughts to a minimum, all the while praying that the Alpha would give him a chance, give them a chance, to fix their damaged bond.

But, he didn’t dare hold his breath for it. There was a chance, a large chance, that Daichi was going to finish processing and get up from the bed to walk out on him. He knew that he had to prepare for that outcome, and so he did. He steadied his internal conviction, aligning his conscious mind with his Omega instincts for the first time in his young life. If not today, then he would try and regain Daichi’s trust tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after. On and on, until he had proven himself as a worthy mate. He would try until he was blue in the face.

He...he and his Omega instincts...they were  _ going _ to get their Alpha back. Even if it took them until the day he died.

A few more minutes of gloomy melancholy passed. Eventually, Suga began to feel a subtle tingle in his chest. It flushed his pale skin with goosebumps as it danced across the back of his neck. It was a pleasant, almost cathartic feeling, and it prompted him to slowly turn his head to the side-- to look down at the tanned Alpha laying next to him. He was met with a pair of measured eyes, trite yet filled with warmth, and a tanned face that was both hesitant and hopeful. And there was something else plastered on Daichi’s chiseled features, something that pulled forth a joyful bubble from Suga’s heavy chest.

There was a small tinge of affection...affection for Suga...his Omega. It was the early markings of a road to forgiveness.

“Okay…”Daichi whispered with a subtle nod, his voice calm and measured. Then, he slowly pushed himself up to a seated position on the mattress. He shuffled backwards, sitting against the copper headboard beside Suga-- far enough away to avoid any sort of touch. He let out an even breath and looked down at his large hands in his lap. “You can’t be the only one taking ownership for how things have gone…” He continued, lolling his head to the side to look Suga down with dark eyes-- eyes that held deep pools of regret.

“I can if I want to…” Suga mumbled back without breaking their intense gaze. He could hear his pounding heart inside of his flushed ears. He felt like a schoolgirl, sitting next to the man of his dreams. So close, yet just out of the reach of the object he so desired.

Daichi chuckled softly, throat rumbling with the early signs of an affectionate growl.  _ “Of course _ you can…”

“I mean it,” Suga affirmed, more loudly. “Every word of it. I’ll spend every minute of my life trying to regain your tru-”

Daichi cut the words short with a large hand, gently caressing Suga’s lower thigh. “If you do that, then when are you going to find any time to change things for Omegas?”

Kind, forgiving words. Suga hiccuped out a sob, hearing them roll off of Daichi’s tongue. He didn’t dare touch the Alpha in return. He kept his arms frozen at his sides, his body stiffening with nerves-- still too worried to test the limits of his mate’s forgiveness. They had both been through a lot, he didn't want to risk pushing their resolution any further. “Goddammit…” He whispered, banging the back of his head against the headboard as tears rolled down his flushed cheeks. “How are you so…so...”

The word he was looking for was  _ wonderful _ , and his Alpha already knew what he was trying to say.

Daichi quietly chuckled again, then hesitantly removed his hand from Suga’s thigh-- leaving them both with a heavy feeling of emptiness. “I’d like to...fix some of the things that  _ I’ve _ fucked up, too,” the Alpha murmured, looking away. A shameful scent rolled off his sweaty skin and Suga cocked his head to the side. “Fuck. I can’t...I can’t even look at you...with everything that I’ve…that I’ve done to you...”

A small smile flickered across Suga’s tired face and he spoke up, eager to give his mate a bit of emotional relief. “You want to take a bath...maybe? A bubble bath?” He put forth, glancing towards the conjoining guest bathroom. Then, he decided that he had a better idea in mind. “I think Miyo’s main bath has a jacuzzi tub? Wait...she’s not here...is she? I mean, I assume she’s not after-”

“No,” Daichi affirmed, throat rumbling out an irritated growl. “You think she would’ve stood by and let me do this to you if she was?”

_ No...Miyo would have bashed through the door the very instant she had heard his pained cries. Wait...where exactly was Miyo?  _ The thought came and went before Suga even had the chance to contemplate it. For now, he wanted to focus every ounce of his energy on mending things with his new mate.

He himself wasn’t at all concerned with the damage that had been done to him during their mating. It certainly wasn’t ideal, his body was throbbing in various places and he was more drained because of it. However, he knew in his heart that Daichi would never,  _ never _ , have hurt him if they had both been in their right minds.

In that moment, sitting next to his Alpha, exhausted and despondent, he finally accepted that a person’s instincts had the power to take full control pf their actions. He realized that they could force people to do things that were out of character-- things that they would never do of their own accord. It didn’t excuse an Alpha’s harsh treatment of another person, but the notion made for a good starting place to build a path of understanding between them and their Omega counterparts.

Suga felt that Daichi’s rough treatment of him that evening didn’t warrant any need for forgiveness. His mate had been through enough emotional turmoil, instinctual turmoil at Suga’s own behest, that there wasn’t anything for him to forgive in the first place. He already knew that his Alpha had a soft heart-- one that would never willingly injure another person. His mate would never hurt him again, this he knew for a fact.

“Um...shall we go...then?” He offered and slowly moved his aching body to the edge of the bed. He swallowed every pained groan, attempting to keep his discomfort to himself, then realized that Daichi would no doubt pick up on it anyways. His uncontrolled scent was a dead giveaway-- not to mention their new bond. While damaged, it still picked up on their coalescing emotions. “I’m fine…really!” He quickly affirmed when he met Daichi's skeptical gaze-- mouth grimacing as another tinge of pain zapped through his wounded shoulder.

Daichi raised a knowing eyebrow and swiftly hopped up from the mattress. He strode around the other side of it, throat rumbling out his disapproval. “I’m carrying you,” he growled and moved to help Suga to his shaky feet. "Hang on a second."

“Really, Daichi, I’m okay!” Suga reiterated as his Alpha pulled him up, cradling him with strong arms. “It looks way worse than it-”

“Please stop,” Daichi growled low in interruption, scent coiling around in fresh droves of protection. “Just...let me fix this.”

The deep, wonderfully familiar growl from his Alpha had Suga melting away in tender thoughts. He had missed their perfect, unseen connection-- truly missed it in the deepest regions of his soul. Daichi’s scent was possessive and protective and perfect in absolutely every way. For once, he had no qualms with an Alpha, with  _ his  _ Alpha, assisting him. For once, he found himself okay with accepting a bit of help. 

Maybe...he didn’t need to be independent all the time.


	60. Alpha, Omega, Human

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, long time no see :)
> 
> First off, I'm sorry for being MIA. Secondly, I will now be updating on either Sundays/Mondays, weekly, until this story is finished! (Unless something crazy comes up). AND THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH THE STORY EVEN THO IVE BEEN GONE FOR FOREVER.
> 
> Lastly, I am working on an actual romance novel and am gonna post a few rough chapters on here if anyone is interested in reading!
> 
> An explanation of why I've been MIA is below, if you're interested! If not (which I totally don't blame you if you're not), then enjoy this smutty chapter and I shall see you all next week :D
> 
> _______________
> 
> Since this place seems to be a pretty positive and safe space, filled with wonderful people, I feel comfortable sharing with ya'll what I've been through the last few months. Maybe my story might help some of you guys who might be in a similar situation!
> 
> Back in January I started working two jobs, around 56 hours a week, so I had very little time to write. BUT the main reason is that I stopped posted/writing was because of a personal situation that has consumed most of my free time. I started seeing a psychiatrist in January (I was working all these hours so that I COULD do this, cause damn they expensive). I started seeing this professional for a BFRB disorder (body focused repetitive behavior), but soon realized that the source of this 'trauma' was an abusive relationship I had been maintaining with a family member (parent). I had a very bad fight in early January with this person and it kickstarted this change in my worldview (thank GOD). I have since cut off communication with this person, but it had been extremely trying and difficult. They have been in my life for half a century, so the wounds and mental scars run pretty damn deep. I have recently had to get lawyers involved and have had to alert my places of work about the situation, so it's been a long couple of months haha.
> 
> Because they are a family, there is this expectation that you are supposed to love them unconditionally. But let me tell you, that is not the case (I'm still learning this, it is VERY hard, so be patient with yourself). Just because they are you parent, does NOT mean that they have the right to treat you poorly or mess with your life/well-being. You are allowed to love someone and not like them at the same time. You are allowed to put yourself ahead of others (and you should!), even family, because if you're not happy, then you can't have a positive influence on those around you. You are the one who is in control of your life and, while it is good to listen to the opinions of others, it is you who gets to make the choice of what you want to do. Yes, you might disappoint people, and that is okay. You are the driver of your life story. You get to make the decisions of what's best for you. Not society, not your parents, not your S.O-- you.
> 
> Abusive relationships are funny, your abusers will make you feel that you are completely at fault. It is important to recognize this. They will gaslight you and make you question everything about yourself, and make you feel crazy. So it's incredibly important to listen what other positive people in your life have to say about the situation. Outside perspectives will save you a lot of heartache and confusion. But let me tell you, not everyone in your life will agree or side with you. A lot of people will critique you for cutting ties with your abuser because, "they're your parent/S.O/BFF. Suck it up. You're being a bad child." This opinion is completely incorrect. Only YOU know the details of the situation and how YOU feel about things. If you ever find yourself in a position like this, where you need support from people who have been through what you've been through, I urge you to check our some subreddits on reddit. They are some of the best, most positive communities to find advice, and they are strictly regulated to keep naysayers out.
> 
> There will be days where you feel like the scum of the earth for cutting out a toxic loved one (family, bf/gf, friend, ect). That is okay. These days will pass. Just remember that you are putting yourself first, and that it the most important thing in the world. 
> 
> I hope everyone on here has a wonderful day/week/year, and remember, if you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?

**Chapter Sixty: Alpha, Omega, Human**

**Suga~**

Suga listened to the rain quietly patter against the windows of Miyo’s master bathroom. It had been fairly humid, especially for the fall season, but he didn't mind-- it made his skin feel healthier. The bathroom itself was a marble palace of porcelain, with two deep sinks on the left side of the room, and a master, tiled in shower with two heads on the right. At the far end of the room, a straight shot from the doorway, was floor to roof frosted window that lit up the small space. Directly in front of it was a raised Jacuzzi bath with granite steps.

In front of Suga, Daichi was hunkered over the white tub, now filling with steamy water. He fiddled with some of Miyo's bath products, opening them to take a sniff, then shaking his head and putting them back in their places. “Do you think Epson salts with sting your wounds?” He asked, pondering to himself more than to Suga. “Yeah...I think we should stick to bubble bath. That should be enough...I think.”

Suga didn’t even murmur his agreement, he was too lost in the moment-- floating his own happy, blissful slice of heaven. He didn’t give two shits what his Alpha wanted to put in the damn tub. Instead, he stood at on the cool tile near the door, smiling sweetly as he inhaled his full of Daichi's masculine scent. He had missed it, truly missed it, as if a part of his soul had been lost before that moment. Standing there now, in Miyo’s bathroom with Daichi grumbling and muttering obscenities to himself, Suga realized, again, that he had no idea how he had managed to break things off between them in the first place. He inhaled another breath of air, feeling Daichi's soul warm his tired bones, then shivered as electric sparks radiated through his body. While their bond was still damaged, he still felt a perpetual calm, being around his Alpha’s affectionate scent. He would fix their bond in time, of that he was certain.

“I think the bath is good...” Daichi affirmed, standing up to full height to shrug out of his torn shirt and dark briefs. “Test it out, see if it’s warm enough for you.”

Suga shed his own meager clothing near the doorway-- his crusty, cum stained robe. He padded across stone tile and stepped into the tub with confidence, then grimaced at his sore muscles as he sunk down in the bubbly depths. Before he had a chance to adjust his body against the porcelain of the tub, Daichi’s muscular body slid in behind him and the pair nestled against each other in the warm water.

Suga sighed to himself, feeling Daichi’s strong heart thump against the pale skin of his back. He felt _alive._ He glanced down at his delicate hands, submerged in the steaming water before him, and exhaled again-- this time a sigh of inner peace. Slowly, Daichi began to wash over his damaged back, whisking away droplets of crimson from his damaged skin. Suga felt a little pain as his wounds were cleaned, but he was careful not to show his discomfort in either his body language or scent. He didn’t want to upset his Alpha--  Daichi was still in a sensitive state since their earlier violent coupling.

For a few minutes, Daichi’s seemed to remain somewhat calm, but Suga knew that he was riding the line between contentment and agitation as he tended to the deep wounds. Ten minutes in, Suga had nearly fallen asleep, purring in a state of calm tranquility, but he was jerked back to reality when an abrupt wave stress hit the air around him. Suddenly, the room filled with Daichi’s full and heavy fragrance-- his Alpha had clearly lost an internal battle with his frustrations. Suga bided his time for a few moments, waiting to see if Daichi could deal with the inner turmoil on his own, but when the scent remain fresh and strong, he decided to speak up to calm the Alpha’s sudden storm.

“It doesn't hurt, Daichi,” he whispered, humming to himself as he swirled the water with his hands. “It's really not as bad as it loo-”

“I know...” Daichi interrupted, exasperated. He large hands froze on Suga’s back and his body language grew rigid and tense.

Suga wondered just what the hell his mate was thinking about-- _if the sudden tension wasn’t about his injuries, then what was it?_

“That...that isn't really the thing that's bothering me the most right now,” Daichi began to explain, his mouth set in a hard line. “I mean, believe me, that...that bothers the hell out of me, but...there’s more to it then that. It’s more...complicated.”

Suga cocked an eyebrow as the Alpha trailed off, then glanced over his shoulder to look as his mate, curious. When Daichi remained silent, eyes fixed on the fresh bite wounds along his pale shoulders, he spoke up again. “So...are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, then? Because you don't have to if you don’t-”

“It's just…” Daichi started, averting his gaze to the frosted window beyond the bath-- coated with water droplets from the outside rain. “It's kind of fucked up, I think. I don’t want to...I don’t want to freak you out.”

Suga carefully adjusted himself in the tub, turning around to straddle his legs around his mate’s hips. When Daichi kept his gaze distant, he cocked his head and clicked his tongue to lure the Alpha's attention. “Hit me with it. I want to know, I swear. I don’t care what it is, I want to know because I love you and I want you to be relaxed. I want you to feel content in this moment, with me.”

Daichi’s lips flashed a slight smile, a small win for Suga. Then he sighed, running a wet hand through his short hair and glanced up to meet Suga’s gaze with tired, brown eyes. “It's just, looking over you...looking over your wounds...seeing my bite marks all over you…” He paused, letting out another heavier, strained sigh. “It makes the Alpha side of me a little _too_ happy. I like...I _really_ like that other Alphas...that they will see that you’re _mine._ ”

 _Oh,_ Suga thought to himself, suddenly feeling heavy himself. The old him would have been angry about Daichi’s sense of ownership, but the new him was trying to be more open.

 _He thinks that I’ll chastise him for his Alpha inhibitions again...of course he does. Why wouldn’t he think that?_ It was another lingering, damaging remnant of his former actions against his Alpha-- one of the many harms that he had done to their bond. He would have to work hard to mitigate it. He needed to show his mate that he wasn’t that same person anymore-- that he was now okay with shows of instinctual nature-- both Alpha and Omega. He needed to prove to his mate that he understood that they _both_ held instinctual urges, and that it was okay to act on them sometimes. It was a natural part of them both.

For a moment, there was contemplative silence, with Daichi waiting patiently for him to speak up. A quiet giggle escaped his lips, quickly turning into a full blown laugh. _What better way to show Daichi that I’ve changed, then with humor?_

“So you _like_ the visible marks that make me yours, eh? How very _Alpha_ of you!” He quipped, flashing Daichi with a full, toothy grin. “With all these marks on me, I’ll be safe for years!”

“I don't mean it like-” Daichi began to explain, but Suga interrupted, wanting to ensure that his mate understood his changed stance on the matter.

“I'm just...I’m just busting your balls, Daichi” he said, splashing the Alpha with a bit of soapy bathwater. While animalistic, the Omega in him kind of _liked_ the marks that his mate had left on his tired body, too. While he recognized that the feeling was instinctive in nature, he was quickly learning that it was okay to connect with that side of him-- it didn’t make him, or Daichi, any less human. “Listen...you’re my mate… so I _like_ the your marks on me. Maybe it isn’t exactly _me_ who likes them, it’s the Omega inside of me that does...but it doesn’t really matter either way, you know? You are you, and you are also your Alpha. Just like I am me, and also my Omega.”

Daichi's throat rumbled at that-- with what Suga imagined as a sort of alleviated comfort. “I…I’m _relieved_ to hear you say that…” Daichi whispered, smirking slightly as he cocked his head to the side. “But I still stand by what I said earlier...that I will _never_ let my instincts take full control of me again. I will _never_ again let them hurt you. Not ever. I’d rather die than do through something like that again. I would never forgive myself.”

Suga purred out his feelings of satisfaction and trust, cupping Daichi’s jaw with his small hands. “The feeling is mutual, and that promise is mutual, too. I will _never_ do anything to hurt you again. I swear to it, and I will prove it over time,” he stated matter-of-factly. “And, for the record, I know _exactly_ how you’re feeling right now. One part of you, the human part, is mortified with the bite marks, while the other, instinctual side, absolutely loves them. It’s quite the conundrum~~”

Daichi nodded, his scent finally softening back to it’s natural contentment. “Yeah, it really is.”

“Mmm,” Suga murmurred, flashing his Alpha another sweet smile.

Satisfied that the issue had been addressed, Daichi resumed his task-- lathering his large hands over Suga’s pale skin with gentle suds of water. When his fingers reached the deeper bite marks near Suga’s neck, his scent once again twisted up with agitation, particularly when his Omega flinched from the stinging soap.

Suga remained silent, this time trusting that his Alpha could handle his internal emotions on his own. To distract himself from the annoying pain, he leaned forward, placing his own chest against his mate’s, craving a more overt physical connection. He buried his face in the crevice between Daichi’s neck and shoulder, inhaling in deep, methodical bursts as the Alpha continued to run watery hands over his damaged back. The more Daichi touched him with tender scrubs, the more their instinctual bond thrummed with pleasure-- repairing the weeks of damage that Suga had caused it. He purred deeper at that thought, smiling into Daichi’s wet, tanned skin. His Omega instincts began to push forward and he allowed them to do so, once again reminding himself that they were a natural part of him. Absentmindedly, he grazed his white teeth over Daichi’s scent glands, shivering when he tasted his mate’s hearty scent on his tongue.

Daichi’s throat began to rumbled on a continuous loop, vibrating through Suga’s teeth. “What are you doing…” He asked, hands freezing on his Omega’s narrow hips beneath the murky water.

Suga hummed, then coyly slid his tongue over Daichi’s exposed glands, his own scent swirling out his lust. “Just enjoying myself…” He whispered, then planted a gentle kiss on the tender area. As the words escaped his lips, he felt Daichi’s cock pulse beneath him and his own private area began to tingle with desire. “Do you want to enjoy things even more…?” He continued, the words spilling out before he even had a chance to recognize what he was saying. For the first time in his life, he was allowing his Omega nature to do what it desired. He had no qualms with it.

Daichi exhaled, head lolling back to look at the white ceiling above. Suga was certain, both from scent and body language, that his mate was doing everything in his power to clamp down on his own instinctual nature. The human side of Suga understood why-- his Alpha was still upset with their violent fucking. He was still concerned about his mate’s safety and didn’t want to do anything that might push his tired body further.

While it was calming for him to think about, that his mate cared about his well-being, the Omega side of him didn’t give two shits about his injuries. It wanted to pull Daichi’s Alpha nature to the foreground-- it wanted to tangle their bodies together in the warm water so that he could be filled with his mate’s length and seed.

“You can put more marks on me…” He whispered in Daichi’s ear, teasing and nipping at the earlobe with his teeth. “I want more of them…I _need_ more of them.”

Daichi groaned at the words, his taut body tensing up against Suga’s own relaxed one. “I don’t think that...we shouldn’t while you’re still....”

“If you don’t put it inside me...” Suga continued, his tone a sultry and sweet combination of desire. “Then I’ll ride you myself. I’ll leave _my_ own marks on you...”

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuck, Suga,” Daichi growled, his chest vibrating with a rumbling sound of lust. “You’re playing with fire.”

Suga ignored the statement and nibbled more at Daichi’s glands, sucking the soft skin between his teeth. Then, he licked over the purpling hickeys, his Omega instincts purring their satisfaction inside of his brain. He loved to see his own marks of ownership on his Alpha-- Daichi was his, now and forever.

He paused for a moment, straightening up to sit back on Daichi’s relaxed hips. He met his Alpha’s gaze, taking in dark eyes and dilating pupils that were quickly filling up with natural lust. For a moment, he paused his sultry actions, giving Daichi the opportunity to take control of the situation-- giving him the opportunity to say no. When the Alpha remained in place, body vibrating with desire, Suga licked his lips and smirked. His mate wanted to fuck him, yes, but he was going to sit back and let Suga have all of the control.

Perhaps, it was his own way of apologizing for their violent mating, not that Suga cared either way. He leaned forward, cupping Daichi’s chiseled jaw with shaky hands, and brought their mouths together for a tender kiss.

He kept things slow as he licked at Daichi’s lips, rocking his hips over the Alpha’s pulsing member. He could feel, even sitting in the warm bathwater, that his sex was incredibly wet-- aching for Daichi’s member to fill him up completely with its generous girth and  length. He gave his mate one final kiss, boldly pulling the Alpha’s lower lip out between his teeth. Then, he tilted his head and smirked at the man before raising himself up in the tub on his knees. Feeling beneath himself for Daichi’s cock, he lined the organ up with his sex and gradually lowered himself onto it.

“Fuuuuck…” Daichi growled as Suga impaled himself on his thick member. He kept his hands softly placed on the Omega’s hips, not daring to move them an inch, and rolled his head back against the porcelain of the tub. “Fuck, you feel _amazing.”_

Suga let out a slight gasp as Daichi’s cock pulsed inside of him, growing ever larger against the soft walls of his sex. Daichi pulled his head forward and flashed him with an agitating smirk that brought a bubble of laugher to his lips, now swollen from kissing-- _I bet you missed my huge cock inside of your ass._

 “I did miss it,” Suga whispered his reply to the silent statement, placing his hands on Daichi’s broad shoulders. “I missed it more than you will ever know…”

As the words faded in the air around them, Suga slowly rose up on his knees and paused, then settled his body back down on his Alpha’s member. He repeated the unhurried motion, rocking his hips again and again, pushing down against Daichi’s cock and he gasped out short breaths of lust. Daichi’s body remained passive, his dark eyes remained fixed on his Omega, mesmerized with the sultry movements. He allowed Suga to ride him, watching intently as his Omega’s actions grew more desperate, swirling the warm, soapy water around them.

“Ah!” Suga panted out, closing his eyes as he pushed his ass as far down against Daichi’s hips as he could manage. He didn’t wanted to simply ride Daichi any longer. He wanted every part of Daichi to be touching him, inside and out. He wanted to be knotted, he _needed_ to be. He wanted to feel a complete, physical connection with his new mate. He wanted his belly to be full of his Alpha’s swollen cock and ample seed. With those flurry of thoughts in his mind, he ground his sex further against Daichi’s hips and moved his chest forward to lick at the Alpha’s exposed scent glands again. “Daichi, please,” he whispered, pleading for his mate to knot him. “I need you...I need you to...please…”

Daichi growled out, throat rumbling with pleasure. In one quick movement, he granted his Omega’s wishes and thrust his hips upwards, bouncing Suga up above the water. Suga gasped loudly, grabbing onto Daichi’s shoulders with his hands, breaking the tanned skin with his nails. His Alpha snarled in his ear and he felt his sex begin to stretch as he was slowly knotted. Their lips met once more, their kisses more desperate and rushed this time. Daichi began to grind his hips in a circle, sinking further down in the bathwater while Suga was further propelled upwards.

As he was knotted, Suga allowed his Alpha to take control of their coupling-- heightening their pleasure as his sex expanded to accommodate the growing member. Once he felt the knot slow to completion, he pulled his mouth away from Daichi’s and grabbed into the back of the Alpha’s dark locks. He jerked his mate’s head back against the lip of the tub so that he was looking down at Daichi’s black eyes with his own foggy ones, baring white teeth. He felt completely connected to the animalistic side of him, and it felt very, very good.

For a moment, there was tense silence. Their scents swirled together as they stared at each other, their bodies locked together at the hips.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Daichi whispered, breaking the silence. Still, he didn’t dare move a muscle completely-- completely enraptured by Suga's domineering energy.

“So are you,” Suga breathed back, his breaths growing shallow as his climax grew to fruition.

“Are you going to come for me?” Daichi quietly growled, his tone both loving and challenging. “I want to watch it.”

Suga took in a sharp breath as his Alpha suddenly pushed out a mass of sexual, domineering energy. The air around them swirled, absorbing Daichi’s heavy scent to coat Suga’s wet skin with lust. Suga’s mouth went agape, parting in a slight _o_ from an abrupt burst of arousal-- he wanted to smack the man he was riding. Daichi’s hands hadn’t moved from their position, resting softly on his waist. His mate didn’t move his hips, not even an inch. He didn’t grind his cock deeper inside Suga’s sex to heighten their pleasure. All he had done was growl out a challenge-- growl out a command-- and unleash his Alpha scent in full. That was all it took to send Suga over the edge. He released Daichi’s hair, gasping out as he spilled his seed in the bathwater between them.

Daichi’s throat thundered, low and deep. “Good Omega,” he whispered, his voice hot with his own need. He increased his grip on Suga’s narrow hips and gently began to push down, impaling his Omega further on his swollen cock. “Should I give you a reward?” He asked softly, dark eyes watching Suga quiver, moan, and orgasm.

“Y-yes,” Suga puffed, body shaking as electric energy shot from his naval, to his small cock, to his sex. “F-fill me.”

The desperate words, Suga’s quaking body, and the scent of the room were more than enough for Daichi. He gave Suga’s waist one last downwards push, then he snarled and brought their desperate mouths together again. Suga felt his sex expand, then fill to the brim with Daichi’s warm seed. He came again, this time a dry orgasm that made him scream against his Alpha’s lips.

“I love you,” Daichi whispered in between kisses. “I love you. I love you.”

Suga tried to reply, but found himself out of breath-- still in the throes of his second orgasm. His body was on fire, the bathwater soothing on his skin.

Daichi kissed him deeply again, hands buried in his silver locks. “I can smell that you love me…” He breathed, grinding his shrinking cock against Suga’s most sensitive spot. “I can feel that you love me…”

Suga panted against his mate’s lips, nodding his head as the two continued to kiss. “I do...I do. You are mine. Forever.”     


End file.
